Systems and methods for automatically populating a display area with historized process parameters

ABSTRACT

Techniques for presenting historized process parameter values in a process plant include presenting, via a user interface of an operator application, indications of process control elements in a first display region within a layout of a display view. Each of the process control elements is associated with one or more process parameters. The operator application also presents a trend display view in a second display region within the layout of the display view. The trend display view includes sets of historized process parameter values for process parameters presented in the first display region. For example, the trend display view in the second display region is linked to the display view in the first display region. In this manner, the trend display view presents charts or other graphical depictions of historized process parameter values for process parameters included in the first display region.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application claiming priority from U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/117,572, filed Aug. 30, 2018, entitled“Systems and Methods for Automatically Populating a Display Area withHistorized Process Parameters,” which claims priority to and the benefitof the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/566,679, filed on Oct. 2, 2017, entitled “Systems And Methods ForGraphical Display Configuration and Usage in Process Control Plants,”the entire disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated byreference herein.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to process control systems, and, moreparticularly, to systems and methods for configuring graphics utilizedby operators to view and respond to real-time conditions within andoperations of an on-line, industrial process plant.

BACKGROUND

Distributed process control systems are used in chemical,pharmaceutical, petroleum, oil and gas, metals and mining, pulp andpaper, or other types of industrial process plants to control one ormore industrial processes to thereby generate or produce one or morephysical products from raw materials and/or other types of sourcematerials. As such, distributed process control systems typicallyinclude one or more process controllers and input/output (I/O) devicescommunicatively coupled to at least one host or operator interfacedevice and to one or more field devices via analog, digital or combinedanalog/digital buses, or via a wireless communication link or network.The field devices, which may be, for example, valves, valve positioners,switches, and transmitters (e.g., temperature, pressure, level and flowrate sensors), are located within the process environment and generallyperform physical or process control functions, such as opening orclosing valves, or measuring process parameters to control one or moreindustrial processes executing within the process plant or system. Smartfield devices, such as field devices conforming to the well-knownFieldbus protocol may also perform control calculations, alarmingfunctions, and other control functions commonly implemented within acontroller. The process controllers, which are also typically locatedwithin the plant environment, receive signals indicative of processmeasurements made by sensors or field devices and/or other informationpertaining to the field devices and execute a controller applicationthat runs, for example, different control modules that make processcontrol decisions, generate control signals based on the receivedinformation, and coordinate with the control modules or blocks beingperformed in the field devices, such as HART®, Wireless HART®, andFOUNDATION® Fieldbus field devices. The control modules in thecontroller send the control signals over the communication lines orlinks to the field devices to thereby control the operation of at leasta portion of the process plant or system.

Information from the field devices and the controller is usually madeavailable over a data highway to one or more other hardware devices,such as operator interfaces, personal computers, or computing devices,data historians, report generators, centralized databases, or othercentralized administrative computing devices that are typically, but notalways, placed in control rooms or other locations away from the harsherplant environment. Each of these hardware devices typically, though notalways, is centralized across the process plant or across a portion ofthe process plant. These hardware devices run applications that may, forexample, enable an operator to view current statuses and operations ofprocesses that are running within the plant, perform functions withrespect to controlling a process and/or operating the process plant,such as changing settings of the process control routine, modifying theoperation of the control modules within the controllers or the fielddevices, viewing alarms generated by field devices and controllers,simulating the operation of the process for the purpose of trainingpersonnel or testing the process control software, keeping and updatinga configuration database, etc. The data highway utilized by the hardwaredevices, controllers, and field devices may include a wiredcommunication path, a wireless communication path, or a combination ofwired and wireless communication paths.

As an example, the DeltaV™ control system, sold by Emerson, includesmultiple applications stored within and executed by different userinterface devices located at diverse places within a process plant, andin some instances, remotely from the process plant. Each of theseapplications provides a user interface (UI) to allow a user (e.g., aconfiguration engineer, an operator, a maintenance technician, etc.) toview and/or modify aspects of the process plant operation andconfiguration. Throughout this specification, the phrase “userinterface” or “UI” is used to refer to an application or screen thatallows a user to view or modify the configuration, operation, or statusof the process plant. Similarly, the phrase “user interface device” or“UI device” is used herein to refer to a device on which a userinterface is operating, whether that device is stationary (e.g., aworkstation, wall-mounted display, process control device display, etc.)or mobile (e.g., a laptop computer, tablet computer, smartphone, etc.).

A configuration application, which resides in one or more userworkstations or computing devices included in a configurationenvironment of a process plant, enables configuration engineers and/orother types of users to create or change process control modules anddownload these process control modules via a data highway to dedicateddistributed controllers that operate in an operating environment of theprocess plant (which is also referred to interchangeably herein as an“operations environment” of the process plant) to control one or moreprocesses during runtime or real-time operations. Typically, thesecontrol modules are made up of communicatively interconnected functionblocks, which perform functions within the control scheme based oninputs thereto and which provide outputs to other function blocks withinthe control scheme. Each dedicated controller and, in some cases, one ormore field devices, stores and executes a respective controllerapplication that runs the control modules assigned and downloadedthereto to implement actual process control functionality.

The configuration application also allows configuration engineers and/orother users to create or change operator Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs)or display views that are used by an operator viewing application todisplay data (e.g., as the data is generated in real-time during runtimeoperations of the process plant) to an operator and to enable theoperator to change various settings, such as set points, within theprocess control routines during runtime operations. The operator viewingapplications that provide the operator HMIs or display views areexecuted on one or more user interface devices (e.g., operatorworkstations, operator tablets, operator mobile devices, etc.) includedin the operations environment of the process plant (or on one or moreremote computing devices in communicative connection with the operatorworkstations and the data highway). The operator HMIs or display viewsreceive data from the controller applications via the data highway anddisplay this data to operators or other users using the UIs at the userinterface devices. Similarly, the operator HMIs or display views mayalso receive data (e.g., real time data) from other control componentsor elements included in the operating environment of the process plantother than control modules, such as controllers, process controllers,field devices, I/O cards or devices, other types of hardware devices,units, areas, and the like. A data historian application is typicallystored in and executed by a data historian device that collects andstores some or all of the data provided across the data highway while aconfiguration database application may run in a still further computerattached to the data highway to store the current process controlroutine configuration, the current operator display configuration, anddata associated therewith. Alternatively, the configuration database maybe located in the same workstation as the configuration application.

As noted above, the operator viewing applications typically execute inone or more of the operator user interface devices and provide operatorHMIs or display views to the operator or maintenance persons regardingthe operating state of the control system, control components, and/ordevices within the plant, e.g., while the plant is operating inreal-time or runtime to control one or more industrial processes.Generally speaking, operator HMIs or display views are used by operatorsin day-to-day operations (which may, for example, be 24/7 operations) ofthe process running in the process plant to view and respond toreal-time conditions within the process and/or the process plant. Atleast some of these operator HMIs or display views may take the form of,for example, alarming displays that receive alarms generated bycontrollers or devices within the process plant, control displaysindicating the operating state of the controllers and other deviceswithin the process plant, maintenance displays indicating the operatingstate of the devices within the process plant, etc. Display viewstypically execute in the runtime or real-time operating environment ofthe process plant, and are generally configured to present, in knownmanners, information or data received from process control modules,devices, and/or other control objects that are also operating within theruntime or real-time operating environment of the process plant. In someknown systems, display views have a graphical element (e.g., a graphicalrepresentation or graphic) that is associated with a physical or logicalelement included in the operating environment and that iscommunicatively tied to the physical or logical element to receive dataabout the physical or logical element and updates thereto over time,e.g., during runtime operations of the process plant. The graphicalelement may be configured or defined to dynamically change itsappearance on the display screen based on the received data toillustrate, for example, that a tank is half full, to illustrate theflow measured by a flow sensor, etc. As such, as the data provided bythe physical or logical element in the operating environment of theprocess plant changes over time (e.g., is repeatedly or continuallyupdated over time), the appearance of the corresponding graphicalelement is changed on the display screen accordingly.

In some currently-known operator display configuration architectures forindustrial process control systems, each operator workstationindependently manages its own alarms and access to real-time controldata that is generated by process control modules, devices, and/or othercontrol objects. As such, to customize an operator HMI or display viewfor a particular operator workstation, custom graphical properties,values, and/or configurations of various display view elements (e.g.,graphical and other types of elements) that are to be presented on theruntime display view are defined and associated with the display viewwithin a graphical configuration environment, and the definition orconfiguration of the display view is downloaded from the configurationenvironment into the particular operator workstation of the operatingenvironment for execution. Often, custom scripts are programmed into theconfiguration of the display view so that desired behavior and/orappearances of the various display view elements and/or of the displayview itself are executed at the particular operator workstation.Additionally, if the display view appearance or behavior is desired tobe modified or changed for the particular operator workstation,typically the modifications must be applied to the configuration of thedisplay view in the graphical configuration environment, and then themodified configuration must be downloaded from the configurationenvironment for execution at the particular operator workstation. Inmost cases, this requires that the particular operator workstation ceaseits execution of the current display view in order for the modifieddisplay view configuration to be received and executed at the particularoperator workstation.

In other currently-known operator display configuration architecturesfor industrial process control systems, a common configuration for adisplay view is downloaded from the graphical configuration environmentto multiple operator workstations. To effect particular, customizedappearances and/or behaviors of the display view at a particularoperator workstation, though, during runtime the particular operatorworkstation at which the display view is executing must query orotherwise communicate with the graphical configuration environment toobtain necessary information (such as particular configurations ofvarious graphics, runtime values, and/or other information) to effect orimplement the desired customized appearances and/or behaviors of thedisplay view at the particular operator workstation. As modern-dayprocess plants may include hundreds of operator workstations, themessages that are sent and received between operator workstations andback-end display configuration servers add a significant load to processplant communication networks.

Recently, the Center for Operator Performance (COP), a researchconsortium that addresses human capabilities and limitations inindustrial process control operating environments through research,collaboration, and human factors engineering, and the InternationalSociety of Automation (ISA) have been working to help advance industrialprocess control system Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) and their ease ofuse, for example, by suggesting improvements and guidelines in HumanCentered Design (HCD). For example, the American National StandardANSI/ISA-101.01.-2015 entitled “Human Machine Interfaces for ProcessAutomation Systems” and approved on Jul. 9, 2015 addresses “thephilosophy, design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of HumanMachine Interfaces (HMIs) for process automated systems includingmultiple work processes throughout the HMI lifecycle . . . [t]hestandard defines the terminology and models to develop and HMI in thework processes recommended to effectively maintain the HMI throughoutthe lifecycle” (ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, page 9).

SUMMARY

As discussed above, generally speaking, operator Human-MachineInterfaces (HMIs) or display views are used by operators during theruntime operations of the process to view and respond to conditionswithin the process and/or process plant. The effectiveness of processplant operators in operating the process safely and effectively, as wellas in detecting and responding to various process and process plantconditions depends, in a large part, on how well the operator HMIs ordisplay views are designed (e.g., by the configuration engineers orother operator HMI designers). However, recent changes in how industrialprocess plants are operated greatly affect the design of operator HMIs.For example, continued competitive pressure in process controlindustries has led to a significant expansion in the span of a portionof the process for which a single operator is responsible. With thisexpansion, the number of process graphics that the single operator mustmonitor and utilize to safely and efficiently run the process hasincreased several-fold. In fact, in a present day process plant,operators are commonly expected to navigate through hundreds of processgraphics. In addition, trends such as increasing intelligence in plantequipment and more automated and advanced control logic in processcontrol industries have led to a significant increase in the level ofcomplexity of the portion of the process for which a single operator isresponsible.

Further, the work space that is utilized by a single operator mayinclude one to many consoles or monitors in a variety of sizes. Thenumber and sizes of monitors and/or consoles are often determined by thesize and complexity of the portion of the process being monitored by theoperator. Additionally, when an operator's work space includes multiplemonitors, each monitor typically has a custom layout defined for eachmonitor's respective monitor size, location, and portion of the processbeing monitored. For example, the custom layout defines what displaysshould open on which monitor, how displays on different monitorsinteract with each other, etc.

Still further, as no two process plants or operating sections within aplant are alike, in practice each process plant often develops anddesigns its own, custom operational philosophies, graphics, and/orgraphical standards for effective operation. Accordingly, the operatorHMI graphics, strategies, design, layout, navigation, and/or operatoractions may be, to a significant extent, custom built for differentoperating sections and/or different process plants.

These and other factors have made the configuration engineer's job ofdesigning operating HMIs ever more difficult. Often, configurationengineers must create complex, programmatic extensions to operator HMIsto customize or hone various capabilities for particular operatingsections and/or plants. Commonly, configuration engineers must utilizeprogramming languages like Visual Basic or C, and/or other customprograms to create the desired operator HMI. This results in a complexoperator HMI suite that is difficult and time consuming to develop,extend, troubleshoot, and maintain.

At least some of the aspects of the novel graphical displayconfiguration and usage systems and methods disclosed herein addressthese and other modern-day HMI challenges, as well as provide a platformfor industrial process control HMI design and use that is not onlyflexible, easy to use, and easy to maintain, but also helps engineersdesign and implement their process plant's operating environment HMI inlight of current process automation HMI standards and best practices.

In an embodiment, a graphical display configuration and usage system foran industrial process plant (also interchangeably referred to herein asa “graphical configuration system” or a “graphical configuration andusage system”) includes a graphical display configuration applicationthat executes in a configuration environment of the process plant. Thegraphical display configuration application includes a user interfacevia which various operator HMIs or display views are able to be created,defined, designed, and/or published, e.g., by a configuration engineer.A configured or defined display view, when downloaded into and executingin the operating or operations environment of the process plant,provides an operator or other user with real-time (e.g., continually orrepeatedly updated) operating states and statuses of various componentsand operations associated with the process. As such, a display viewtypically includes respective links between one or more display viewelements presented on the display view and one or more control modules,devices, or control objects that are executing to control the processwithin the operating environment of the process plant so that, upondownload and execution of a published configuration of the display viewat a user interface device that is communicatively connected to anoperating environment of the process plant (e.g., at an operatorworkstation, remote computing device, mobile device, etc.), respectiveindications of one or more values or other data that are provided orgenerated by the one or more control modules, devices, or controlobjects while executing in the operating environment of the processplant are presented and repeatedly updated on the executing displayview, e.g., via the linked display view elements.

The graphical display configuration system also includes a centralizedconfiguration database or library that stores published configurationsor definitions of display views as well as published configurations ordefinitions of display view elements that are available to be includedon or otherwise associated with various display views. In someembodiments, the centralized configuration database or library alsostores draft configurations or definitions of display views and/ordisplay view elements. Examples of display view elements includegraphics, properties, links to control modules, devices, objects, and/orother control components or elements that are disposed in the operatingenvironment, global variables, parameters, areas or subsections of thedisplay view, and/or other elements and/or portions of the display view.In an example, for a particular display view, the centralizedconfiguration database or library stores a published configuration ofthe particular display view and optionally one or more working or draftconfigurations of the particular display view. The publishedconfiguration of the particular display view may include one or morepublished configurations of various display view elements that are toappear on the executing display view, and the published display viewconfiguration is available for download and execution in the operatingenvironment of the process plant. On the other hand, the one or moreworking or draft configurations of the particular display view areexcluded from download and execution in the operating environment of theprocess plant. That is, working or draft configurations of display viewsand of display view elements are prevented from being downloaded andexecuted in the operating environment of the process, and instead aremaintained within the configuration environment, e.g., for edit,modification, testing, etc.

The published configuration or definition of the particular display viewincludes one or more user controls via which an operator or user of theuser interface device included in the operating environment of theprocess plant is able to change an appearance of the executing displayview at his or her respective user interface device on-line duringruntime operations. For example, the operator, via the one or more usercontrols at his or her respective user interface device, is able tochange the appearance of a graphic, a property of a graphic, an area ofthe display view, a property and/or content of the area of a displayview, a location of a graphic on the display view, particular datasourced by a control module, device, or control object that is to bedisplayed, and/or other appearances of elements, areas, or portions ofthe executing display view. Significantly, the graphics configurationsystem allows the change to the appearance of the executing display viewin the operating environment to be implemented at the operatorworkstation solely based upon contents of the published configuration ordefinition of the display view that is executing at the operatorworkstation. That is, the downloaded, published configuration of thedisplay view allows the operator to customize or change the appearanceof the display view at the operator's workstation while the display viewis executing on-line in the operating environment without having to haltthe execution of the display view, without having to download adifferent configuration of the display view, and without the displayview and/or the operator workstation needing to obtain data from theconfiguration environment to implement the desired change.

Accordingly, when the published configuration or definition of theparticular display view is downloaded to multiple user interface devicesor operator workstations included in the operating environment of theprocess plant, each operator or user is able to customize or change thelocal appearance of the instance of the display view that is executingat his or her workstation independently of other operators or users, andwithout his or her workstation communicating with the graphical displayconfiguration application and configuration library. Some of theoperator-initiated changes or customizations may be implemented in amutually exclusive manner at a particular workstation, for example, afill property of a graphic is selected by the operator to be either grayor blue, but not both gray and blue. Some of the changes may not bemutually exclusive at a particular workstation (e.g., the changes may becumulative or independently applied), such as when the operator dragsand drops graphics that are indicative of particular control elementsthat the operator desires to actively (and easily) monitor into anActive Monitor or Watch window included on the display view.

In an embodiment, a method for configuring graphical displays forruntime or real-time operations of a process plant includes receiving,via a user interface of a graphical display configuration applicationexecuting in a configuration environment of a process plant, adefinition of a display view. The display view typically includesvarious graphical elements that are representative of respective controlmodules, devices, and/or other control components (also referred tointerchangeably herein as control elements or control objects) thatexecute or operate in the operating environment of the process plant,e.g., to control at least a portion of the process, such as controllers,process controllers, field devices, I/O cards or devices, other types ofhardware devices, units, areas, etc. Accordingly, the definition of thedisplay view defines a link between a graphical element presented on thedisplay view and a control component or object so that, upon downloadand execution of the display view in the operating environment of theprocess plant, one or more values or other data that are generated bythe control component or control object while executing in the operatingenvironment of the process plant to control the process are presentedand repeatedly updated on the executing display view via the linkedgraphical element. The graphical element may be, for example, a graphicthat is indicative or representative of a particular control module,device, or other control component or object.

Additionally, typically the definition of the display view includesrespective definitions of various other graphical portions, elements, orcomponents (and/or combinations thereof) that are included on and/orotherwise associated with the display view, such as graphics, text,properties of graphics and/or text (e.g., color, contrast, animations,etc.), global variables, parameters, different areas of the displayview, respective properties and/or content of different areas of thedisplay view, different locations of various graphics, text, and/orareas on the display view, and/or particular operating data that issourced by control modules, devices, and/or other control objects andtheir linkages to respective graphics or other elements on the displayview, to name a few. Other such graphical portions, elements, and/orcomponents which may be included on and/or otherwise associated with thedisplay view may include, for example, display view hierarchies, displayview layouts, timers, embedded links, animation conversion functions,data references, project or plant standards, display themes, contentlanguages and/or indications thereof, application languages and/orindications thereof, tab areas on display views, tooltips and/or othercontextual displays, trends and other representations of historizedparameters, watch or active monitoring areas, and/or other features,aspects, and/or functionalities provided by the present graphicalconfiguration and usage systems and methods described herein. Stillother graphical portions, elements, and/or components which may beincluded on and/or otherwise associated with the display view mayinclude custom and/or default Graphic Element Module (GEM)configurations (e.g., such as described in co-owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/692,450 filed on Aug. 31, 2017 and entitled“Derived and Linked Definitions with Override,” and/or may includeoperator display switching preview configurations and/or objectsassociated therewith (e.g., such as described in co-owned U.S. patentapplication No. 15,243,176 filed on Aug. 22, 2016 and entitled “OperatorDisplay Switching Preview.”

At any rate, for ease of reading herein, such graphical portions,elements, or components (and combinations thereof) that are included onor otherwise associated with a display view are generally referred tointerchangeably herein as “graphical display view elements,” “graphicalelements,” “graphical components,” “display view elements,” “displayelements,” or “display view components.” Typically, each display viewelement may be defined by or configured using its own separate object,where the object may be created, modified, stored, and published via thegraphical configuration and usage systems and methods described herein.

Some of the definitions of display view elements may define mutuallyexclusive options, for example, the color theme of the display view inits entirety may be selectively changed by the operator between variousdefined color themes, or the language that is used on the display viewis switched by the operator between Arabic and French. Some of thedefinitions of display view elements may not be mutually exclusive, suchas when the operator drags and drops graphics that are indicative ofparticular control elements that the operator desires to actively (andeasily) monitor into an Active Monitor or Watch window included on thedisplay view.

With particular regard to a display view configuration or definitionthat defines a plurality of properties that are selectable in theoperating environment in a mutually exclusive manner for application toa particular portion of the executing display view, the method includesreceiving, via the user interface of the graphical display configurationapplication, an indication of a selection of a subset of a plurality ofuser interface devices (e.g., operator workstations) that are includedin the operating environment of the process plant and to whichrespective instances of the display view definition are to be downloadedfor execution. The selected subset of user interface devices may includemore than one user interface device, if desired. The method furtherincludes downloading the definition of the display view (which may be apublished definition) into each user interface device included in theselected subset of user interface devices for execution in the operatingenvironment of the process plant, thereby enabling the particularportion of the executing display view to be selectively changed, in themutually exclusive manner between the plurality of properties,independently at each user interface device. Accordingly, each userinterface device implements its respective change solely based upon thecontents of the downloaded definition of the display view executing atthe user interface device, and without communicating with any otherdevice included in the configuration environment of the process plant toeffect or implement the change. Thus, a first operator may select“flashing” for a particular property of a particular graphic included onthe display view at his or her workstation, while another operator mayselect “no flashing” for the particular property of the particulargraphic included on the display view at his or her workstation. Bothselections are fully supported and solely implemented by the respectivedownloaded definitions of the display view executing at the workstationswithout having to halt execution of the display view at theworkstations, without having to download a different configuration ofthe display view to the workstations, and without the display viewsand/or the operator workstations obtaining data or other informationfrom the configuration environment to implement the desired change.

It is noted that while the disclosure herein refers to graphical displayviews and graphical display view elements, this is for illustrative andease of discussion purposes only, and is not meant to be limiting.Indeed, any one or more of the aspects discussed herein with respect tographical display views may easily be applied to Graphical ElementModule (GEM) classes, for example. Similarly, any one or more of theaspects discussed herein with respect to graphical display view elementsmay be easily applied to GEMs, for example. As is commonly known, GEMsare linked graphical configurable shapes that are reusable and that maybe combined with other shapes and/or behaviors. Typically, GEMs provideone or more visual representations or views of a configurable shape, andthe definition or configuration of a GEM is stored separately fromdefinitions or configurations of usage/instances of that GEM in specificdisplay views and other objects (e.g., to enable sharing the GEMdefinition/configuration). As such, the graphical configuration systemsand methods described herein and any one or more aspects thereof may beeasily applied to GEMs and GEM classes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a distributed process control networklocated within a process plant including the graphics configuration andusage systems and methods of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1B is a block diagram of an example user interface deviceschematically illustrated in FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of an example implementation of a graphicaldisplay configuration and usage system in a configuration environmentand in an operating environment of a process plant, such as the processplant of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of an example implementation of the graphicalconfiguration library included in the graphical configuration and usageof system of FIG. 2A;

FIG. 2C depicts a block diagram of an example snapshot in time of anin-progress configuring of a display view using the graphicalconfiguration and usage system of FIG. 2A;

FIG. 3A is an example view of a graphical display configurationapplication for defining graphics and an example view of an operatorapplication for presenting the graphics according to the definitionsfrom the graphical display configuration application;

FIG. 3B is an example detailed view of a graphical display configurationapplication for defining graphics;

FIG. 4A is an example view of an operator application for presentinghistorized process parameter values corresponding to process parametersin a display view;

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram of an example method for configuring a displayof historized process parameter values; and

FIG. 4C is a flow diagram of an example method for presenting historizedprocess parameter values at an operator workstation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an exemplary process control network orsystem 2 operating in a process control system or process plant 10 withand/or in which embodiments of the novel graphical display configurationand usage system described herein may be utilized. The process controlnetwork or system 2 may include a network backbone 5 providingconnectivity directly or indirectly between a variety of other devices.The devices coupled to the network backbone 5 include, in variousembodiments, combinations of one or more access points 7 a, one or moregateways 7 b to other process plants (e.g., via an intranet or corporatewide area network), one or more gateways 7 c to external systems (e.g.,to the Internet), one or more user interface (UI) devices 8 which may bestationary (e.g., a traditional operator workstation) or mobilecomputing devices (e.g., a mobile device smart-phone), one or moreservers 12 (e.g., which may be implemented as a bank of servers, as acloud computing system, or another suitable configuration), controllers11, input/output (I/O) cards 26 and 28, wired field devices 15-22,wireless gateways 35, and wireless communication networks 70. Thecommunication networks 70 may include wireless devices 40-58, whichinclude wireless field devices 40-46, wireless adapters 52 a and 52 b,access points 55 a and 55 b, and a router 58. The wireless adapters 52 aand 52 b may be connected to non-wireless field devices 48 and 50,respectively. The controller 11 may include a processor 30, a memory 32,and one or more control routines 38. Though FIG. 1A depicts only asingle one of some of the devices that are directly and/orcommunicatively connected to the network backbone 5, it will beunderstood that each of the devices could have multiple instances on thenetwork backbone 5 and, in fact, that the process plant 10 may includemultiple network backbones 5.

The UI devices 8 may be communicatively connected to the controller 11and the wireless gateway 35 via the network backbone 5. The controller11 may be communicatively connected to wired field devices 15-22 viainput/output (I/O) cards 26 and 28 and may be communicatively connectedto wireless field devices 40-46 via the network backbone 5 and awireless gateway 35. The controller 11 may operate to implement a batchprocess or a continuous process using at least some of the field devices15-22 and 40-50. The controller 11, which may be, by way of example, theDeltaV™ controller sold by Emerson, is communicatively connected to theprocess control network backbone 5. The controller 11 may be alsocommunicatively connected to the field devices 15-22 and 40-50 using anydesired hardware and software associated with, for example, standard4-20 mA devices, I/O cards 26, 28, and/or any smart communicationprotocol such as the FOUNDATION® Fieldbus protocol, the HART® protocol,the Wireless HART® protocol, etc. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG.1A, the controller 11, the field devices 15-22, 48, 50 and the I/O cards26, 28 are wired devices, and the field devices 40-46 are wireless fielddevices.

In operation of the UI device 8, the UI device 8 may, in someembodiments, execute a user interface (“UI”), allowing the UI device 8to accept input via an input interface and provide output at a display.The UI device 8 may receive data (e.g., process related data such asprocess parameters, log data, sensor data, and/or any other data thatmay be captured and stored), from the server 12. In other embodiments,the UI may be executed, in whole or in part, at the server 12, where theserver 12 may transmit display data to the UI device 8. The UI device 8may receive UI data (which may include display data and processparameter data) via the backbone 5 from other nodes in the processcontrol network or system 2, such as the controller 11, the wirelessgateway 35, and/or the server 12. Based on the UI data received at theUI device 8, the UI device 8 provides output (i.e., visualrepresentations or graphics, some of which may be updated duringrun-time) representing aspects of the process associated with theprocess control network or system 2, allowing the user to monitor theprocess. The user may also affect control of the process by providinginput at the UI device 8. To illustrate, the UI device 8 may providegraphics representing, for example, a tank filling process. In such ascenario, the user may read a tank level measurement and decide that thetank needs to be filled. The user may interact with an inlet valvegraphic displayed at the UI device 8 and input a command causing theinlet valve to open.

In certain embodiments, the UI device 8 may implement any type ofclient, such as a thin client, web client, or thick client. For example,the UI device 8 may depend on other nodes, computers, UI devices, orservers for the bulk of the processing necessary for operation of the UIdevice 8, as might be the case if the UI device is limited in memory,battery power, etc. (e.g., in a wearable device). In such an example,the UI device 8 may communicate with the server 12 or with another UIdevice, where the server 12 or other UI device may communicate with oneor more other nodes (e.g., servers) on the process control network orsystem 2 and may determine the display data and/or process data totransmit to the UI device 8. Furthermore, the UI device 8 may pass anydata related to received user input to the server 12 so that the server12 may process the data related to user input and operate accordingly.In other words, the UI device 8 may do little more than render graphicsand act as a portal to one or more nodes or servers that store the dataand execute the routines necessary for operation of the UI device 8. Athin client UI device offers the advantage of minimal hardwarerequirements for the UI device 8.

In other embodiments, the UI device 8 may be a web client. In such anembodiment, a user of the UI device 8 may interact with the processcontrol system via a browser at the UI device 8. The browser enables theuser to access data and resources at another node or server 12 (such asthe server 12) via the backbone 5. For example, the browser may receiveUI data, such as display data or process parameter data, from the server12, allowing the browser to depict graphics for controlling and/ormonitoring some or all of the process. The browser may also receive userinput (such as a mouse click on a graphic). The user input may cause thebrowser to retrieve or access an information resource stored on theserver 12. For example, the mouse click may cause the browser toretrieve (from the server 12) and display information pertaining to theclicked graphic.

In yet other embodiments, the bulk of the processing for the UI device 8may take place at the UI device 8. For example, the UI device 8 mayexecute the previously discussed UI. The UI device 8 may also store,access, and analyze data locally.

In operation, a user may interact with the UI device 8 to monitor orcontrol one or more devices in the process control network or system 2,such as any of the field devices 15-22 or the devices 40-50. The usermay interact with the UI device 8, for example, to modify or change aparameter associated with a control routine stored in the controller 11.The processor 30 of the controller 11 implements or oversees one or moreprocess control routines (stored in a memory 32), which may includecontrol loops. The processor 30 may communicate with the field devices15-22 and 40-50 and with other nodes that are communicatively connectedto the backbone 5. It should be noted that any control routines ormodules (including quality prediction and fault detection modules orfunction blocks) described herein may have parts thereof implemented orexecuted by different controllers or other devices if so desired.Likewise, the control routines or modules described herein which are tobe implemented within the process control system may take any form,including software, firmware, hardware, etc. Control routines may beimplemented in any desired software format, such as using objectoriented programming, ladder logic, sequential function charts, functionblock diagrams, or using any other software programming language ordesign paradigm. In particular, the control routines may be defined andimplemented by a user through the UI device 8. The control routines maybe stored in any desired type of memory, such as random access memory(RAM), or read only memory (ROM) of the controller 11. Likewise, thecontrol routines may be hard-coded into, for example, one or moreEPROMs, EEPROMs, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), orany other hardware or firmware elements of the controller 11. Thus, thecontroller 11 may be configured (by a user using a UI device 8 incertain embodiments) to implement (e.g., receive, store, and/or execute)a control strategy or control routine in any desired manner.

In some embodiments of the UI device 8, a user may interact with the UIdevice 8 to define and implement a control strategy at the controller 11using what are commonly referred to as function blocks, wherein eachfunction block is an object or other part (e.g., a subroutine) of anoverall control routine and operates in conjunction with other functionblocks (via communications called links) to implement process controlloops within the process control system. Control based function blockstypically perform one of an input function, such as that associated witha transmitter, a sensor or other process parameter measurement device; acontrol function, such as that associated with a control routine thatperforms PID, fuzzy logic, etc. control; or an output function whichcontrols the operation of some device, such as a valve, to perform somephysical function within the process control system. Of course, hybridand other types of function blocks exist. The function blocks may havegraphical representations that are provided at the UI device 8, allowinga user to easily modify the types of function blocks, the connectionsbetween the function blocks, and the inputs/outputs associated with eachof function blocks implemented in the process control system. Functionblocks may be downloaded to, stored in, and executed by the controller11, which is typically the case when these function blocks are used for,or are associated with standard 4-20 mA devices and some types of smartfield devices such as HART devices, or may be stored in and implementedby the field devices themselves, which can be the case with Fieldbusdevices. The controller 11 may include one or more control routines 38that may implement one or more control loops. Each control loop istypically referred to as a control module, and may be performed byexecuting one or more of the function blocks.

Referring still to FIG. 1A, the wireless field devices 40-46 communicatein a wireless network 70 using a wireless protocol, such as the WirelessHART protocol. In certain embodiments, the UI device 8 may be capable ofcommunicating with the wireless field devices 40-46 using the wirelessnetwork 70. Such wireless field devices 40-46 may directly communicatewith one or more other nodes of the process control network or system 2that are also configured to communicate wirelessly (using the wirelessprotocol, for example). To communicate with one or more other nodes thatare not configured to communicate wirelessly, the wireless field devices40-46 may utilize a wireless gateway 35 connected to the backbone 5. Ofcourse, the field devices 15-22 and 40-46 could conform to any otherdesired standard(s) or protocols, such as any wired or wirelessprotocols, including any standards or protocols developed in the future.

The wireless gateway 35 may provide access to various wireless devicesor nodes 40-46, 52-58 of a wireless communication network 70. Inparticular, the wireless gateway 35 provides communicative couplingbetween the wireless devices 40-46, 52-58 and other nodes of the processcontrol network or system 2 (including the controller 11 of FIG. 1A).The wireless gateway 35 provides communicative coupling, in some cases,by the routing, buffering, and timing services to lower layers of thewired and wireless protocol stacks (e.g., address conversion, routing,packet segmentation, prioritization, etc.) while tunneling a sharedlayer or layers of the wired and wireless protocol stacks, in an exampleimplementation. In other cases, the wireless gateway 35 may translatecommands between wired and wireless protocols that do not share anyprotocol layers.

Similar to the wired field devices 15-22, the wireless field devices40-46 of the wireless network 70 may perform physical control functionswithin the process plant 10, e.g., opening or closing valves or takemeasurements of process parameters. The wireless field devices 40-46,however, are configured to communicate using the wireless protocol ofthe network 70. As such, the wireless field devices 40-46, the wirelessgateway 35, and other wireless nodes 52-58 of the wireless network 70are producers and consumers of wireless communication packets.

In some scenarios, the wireless network 70 may include non-wirelessdevices 48, 50, which may be wired devices. For example, a field device48 of FIG. 1A may be a legacy 4-20 mA device and a field device 50 maybe a traditional wired HART device. To communicate within the network70, the field devices 48 and 50 may be connected to the wirelesscommunication network 70 via a respective wireless adaptor (WA) 52 a, 52b. Additionally, the wireless adaptors 52 a, 52 b may support othercommunication protocols such as Foundation® Fieldbus, PROFIBUS,DeviceNet, etc. Furthermore, the wireless network 70 may include one ormore network access points 55 a, 55 b, which may be separate physicaldevices in wired communication with the wireless gateway 35 or may beprovided with the wireless gateway 35 as an integral device. Thewireless network 70 may also include one or more routers 58 to forwardpackets from one wireless device to another wireless device within thewireless communication network 70. The wireless devices 40-46 and 52-58may communicate with each other and with the wireless gateway 35 overwireless links 60 of the wireless communication network 70.

In certain embodiments, the process control network or system 2 mayinclude other nodes connected to the network backbone 5 that communicateusing other wireless protocols. For example, the process control networkor system 2 may include one or more wireless access points 7 a thatutilize other wireless protocols, such as WiFi or other IEEE 802.11compliant wireless local area network protocols, mobile communicationprotocols such as WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for MicrowaveAccess), LTE (Long Term Evolution) or other ITU-R (InternationalTelecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector) compatible protocols,short-wavelength radio communications such as near field communications(NFC) and Bluetooth, and/or other wireless communication protocols.Typically, such wireless access points 7 a allow handheld or otherportable computing devices to communicate over a respective wirelessnetwork that is different from the wireless network 70 and that supportsa different wireless protocol than the wireless network 70. In someembodiments, the UI device 8 communicates over the process controlnetwork or system 2 using a wireless access point 7 a. In somescenarios, in addition to portable computing devices, one or moreprocess control devices (e.g., controller 11, field devices 15-22, orwireless devices 35, 40-46, 52-58) may also communicate using thewireless network supported by the access points 7 a.

Additionally or alternatively, the process control network or system 2may include one or more gateways 7 b, 7 c to systems that are externalto the immediate process control system. In such embodiments, the UIdevice 8 may be used to control, monitor, or otherwise communicate withsaid external systems. Typically, such systems are customers and/orsuppliers of information generated or operated on by the process controlsystem. For example, a plant gateway node 7 b may communicativelyconnect the immediate process plant 10 (having its own respectiveprocess control data network backbone 5) with another process planthaving its own respective network backbone. In an embodiment, a singlenetwork backbone 5 may service multiple process plants or processcontrol environments.

In another example, the plant gateway node 7 b may communicativelyconnect the immediate process plant to a legacy or prior art processplant that does not include a process control network or system 2 orbackbone 5. In this example, the plant gateway node 7 b may convert ortranslate messages between a protocol utilized by the process controlbig data backbone 5 of the plant 10 and a different protocol utilized bythe legacy system (e.g., Ethernet, Profibus, Fieldbus, DeviceNet, etc.).In such an example, the UI device 8 may be used to control, monitor, orotherwise communicate with systems or networks in said legacy or priorart process plant.

The process control network or system 2 may include one or more externalsystem gateway nodes 7 c to communicatively connect the process controlnetwork or system 2 with the network of an external public or privatesystem, such as a laboratory system (e.g., Laboratory InformationManagement System or LIMS), a personnel rounds database, a materialshandling system, a maintenance management system, a product inventorycontrol system, a production scheduling system, a weather data system, ashipping and handling system, a packaging system, the Internet, anotherprovider's process control system, and/or other external systems. Theexternal system gateway nodes 7 c may, for example, facilitatecommunication between the process control system and personnel outsideof the process plant (e.g., personnel at home).

Although FIG. 1A illustrates a single controller 11 with a finite numberof field devices 15-22, 40-46, and 48-50 communicatively connectedthereto, this is only an illustrative and a non-limiting embodiment. Anynumber of controllers 11 may be included in the process control networkor system 2, and any of the controllers 11 may communicate with anynumber of wired or wireless field devices 15-22, 40-50 to control aprocess in the plant 10. Furthermore, the process plant 10 may alsoinclude any number of wireless gateways 35, routers 58, access points55, wireless process control communication networks 70, access points 7a, and/or gateways 7 b, 7 c.

FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an example UI device 8 which maybe utilized in conjunction with embodiments of the novel graphicaldisplay configuration and usage system described herein. The UI device 8may be a desktop computer such as a traditional operator workstation, acontrol room display, or a mobile computing device such as a laptopcomputer, a tablet computer, a mobile device smart-phone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a wearable computing device, or any othersuitable client computing device. The UI device 8 may execute agraphical display configuration application utilized by a configurationengineer in the configuration environment to create, generate, and/oredit various display view definitions or configurations as well ascreate, generate, and/or edit various display view element definitionsor configurations. The UI device 8 may also execute an operatorapplication utilized by an operator to monitor, observe, and react tovarious statuses and conditions of the process within the operatingenvironment. The UI device 8 may include a display 72. Further, the UIdevice 8 includes one or more processors or CPUs 75, a memory 78, arandom-access memory (RAM) 80, an input/output (I/O) circuit 82, and acommunication unit 85 to transmit and receive data via a local areanetwork, wide area network, and/or any other suitable network, which maybe wired and/or wireless. The UI device 8 may communicate with thecontrollers 11, the server 12, and/or any other suitable computingdevice.

The memory 78 may include an operating system 88, applications runningon the operating system 88 such as the graphical display configurationapplication and operator application, and a control unit 90 forcontrolling the display 72 and communicating with the controllers 11 tocontrol on-line operation of the process plant. In some embodiments, theserver 12 may transmit a graphical representation of a portion of theprocess plant to the UI device 8 and in turn, the control unit 90 maycause the graphical representation of the portion of the process plantto be presented on the display 72. Additionally, the control unit 90 mayobtain user input from the I/O circuit 82, such as user input from theoperator or configuration engineer (also referred to herein as a user)and translate the user input into a request to present a graphicaldisplay view in a particular language, a request to include graphicsthat are indicative of particular control elements in an Active Monitoror Watch window included on the display view, a request to display anadjustment to a process parameter included in one of the processsections, etc.

In some embodiments, the control unit 90 may communicate the translateduser input to the server 12 which may generate and transmit therequested UI to the UI device 8 for display. In other embodiments, thecontrol unit 90 may generate the new UI based on the translated userinput and present the new UI on the display 72 of the UI device 8. Whenthe translated user input is a request to display an adjustment to aprocess parameter included in one of the process sections, the controlunit 90 may adjust the process parameter value on the display 72 inaccordance with the user input from the operator and may provideinstructions to the controllers 11 to adjust the process parameter inthe process plant. In other embodiments, the control unit 90 maycommunicate the translated user input to the server 12 which maygenerate and transmit the adjusted process parameter value to the UIdevice 8 for display, and provide instructions to the controllers 11 toadjust the process parameter in the process plant.

FIG. 2A depicts a high-level block diagram illustrating one possiblemanner of implementing embodiments and/or aspects of the graphicaldisplay configuration and usage system 100 described herein within aconfiguration environment 102 and an operating or operations environment105 of a process plant or process control system, e.g., of the processplant 10 of FIG. 1A. The configuration environment 102 of the processcontrol system is interchangeably referred to herein as the “off-line”environment 102 or the “back-end” environment 102 of the process controlsystem, and the operating environment 105 of the process control systemis interchangeably referred to herein as the “operations,” “on-line,”“front-end,” or “field” environment 105 of the process control system.

As illustrated in FIG. 2A, the configuration environment 102 includes agraphical display configuration application 110 that includes a userinterface via which a configuration engineer or user may create,generate, and/or edit various display view definitions or configurations112 as well as create, generate, and/or edit various display viewelement definitions or configurations 115. For example, the graphicaldisplay configuration application 110 may execute on an instance of theuser device 8 of FIGS. 1A and/or 1B. Each display view configuration 112and each display view element configuration 115 may be implemented as arespective object, for example. Generally speaking, a display viewdefinition 112 may be configured to include (among other components) oneor more display element definitions 115. Typically, a display viewdefinition 112 is configured to include at least one display element(e.g., a graphical element) that is linked to a particular controlmodule, device, or other type of control object so that in the operatingenvironment 105, runtime data associated with the particular controlmodule, device, or control object may be represented via the linkeddisplay element(s) on the executing display view, e.g., in a continuallyor repeatedly updated manner. The particular control module, device, orcontrol object typically is defined in a control configuration database118 (e.g., its configuration is stored in the control configurationdatabase 118), and may be represented within the display view definition112 by a designated control tag or other suitable indicator, forexample. As shown in FIG. 2A, the display view-related definitions orconfigurations 112, 115 are stored in a centralized graphicalconfiguration database or library 120 so that the graphicaldisplay-related configurations 112, 115 are available for download andexecution in the operating environment 105 to thereby allow operators orusers to monitor, observe, and react to various statuses and conditionsof the process within the operating environment 105. It is noted thatalthough the graphical configuration database 120 and the controlconfiguration database 118 are illustrated in FIG. 2A as being separatedatabases within the configuration environment 102 of the processcontrol system 10, in some implementations, at least portions or theentireties of the configuration databases 120, 118 may be integrallyimplemented as a unitary database or library.

At any rate, in FIG. 2A, a display view configuration 112 may be definedto specify one or more control objects 118 that are associated with orbound to respective display view elements 115 included on the displayview 112, and then the definitions of the display view elements 115 andthe control objects 118 respectively bound thereto are instantiated andprovided to (e.g., are downloaded into) one or more different operatorworkstations or user interface devices 122 included in the operatingenvironment 105 of the process plant 10. In an example, the userinterface device or workstation 122 may take the form of the userinterface device 8 of FIG. 1B. The instantiated display view 112executing at the user interface device 122 communicates with the controlmodule runtime environment 125, which may be executed in controllers andfield devices associated with the process, to access or otherwise obtaindata or other information from the control module runtime environment125, e.g., as defined by the bound control objects 118 of the displayview 112. The user interface device 122 may communicate with the controlmodule runtime environment 125 using any desired or preconfiguredcommunication networks, such as the data highway 5 and/or the wirelesscommunication networks 70 of FIG. 1A.

In some embodiments, user interface device 122 uses a download scriptparser 128 to parse at least some of the downloaded display viewconfiguration 112 during its execution (e.g., to perform just in timeobject code conversion), although use of the download script parser 128by the user interface device 122 is not necessary or required, e.g.,when a downloaded display view configuration 112 does not include anyscripts.

In some embodiments, the user interface device 122 uses a rule-basedexecution engine 130 to execute process flow algorithms or other rulebased procedures (e.g., as provided by a process flow runtimeenvironment 132) that are indicated by or bound to the display viewelement objects 115 and/or to the display view object 112, such as whenone or more of the display view element objects 115 is a smart processobject. Generally speaking, a smart process object is defined orconfigured to include data storage for storing data pertaining to andreceived from other entities within the process plant 10, as well asinputs and outputs for communicating with other smart process objectsand methods that may be executed on the stored and received data, e.g.,to detect plant or device conditions. In some arrangements, smartprocess objects are communicatively connected together to create aprocess flow module that provides a display view for, and implement aset of rules for a plant entity, such as an area, device, element,module, etc., and the process flow module is executed in the runtime bythe process flow runtime environment 132, e.g., by using the executionengine 130. It is noted that the use of the execution engine 130 by theuser interface device 122 is not necessary or required, e.g., when adownloaded display view configuration 112 does not include any smartprocess objects. It is further noted that other methods of integratingthe display views and display view elements with runtime control objectsin the operating environment 105 other than those discussed herein areadditionally or alternatively possible, and may be utilized by thegraphical display configuration and usage system 100. For ease ofdiscussion, an instantiated display view that executes or is provided ona user interface device 122 of the operating environment 105 isgenerally referred to herein as an operator or operations application135.

FIG. 2B depicts a detailed block diagram of an embodiment of thegraphical configuration library 120 included in the graphical displayconfiguration and usage system 100 of FIG. 2A. As illustrated in FIG.2B, the graphical configuration library 120 stores both display viewdefinitions or configurations 112 as well as display view elementdefinitions or configurations 115. Each definition or configuration 112,115 may have associated therewith a published version and optionally oneor more draft versions (which are also referred to hereininterchangeably as “in-progress” or “working” versions) which are storedin the library 120. As shown in FIG. 2B, View1 has two correspondingdraft configurations and one corresponding published configurationstored in the graphical configuration database 120. Additionally, thegraphical configuration database 120 is shown as storing one draftconfiguration and two published configurations for View2, one publishedconfiguration and no draft configurations for View3, and m draftconfigurations and one published configuration for ViewN. Generallyspeaking, only published configurations or definitions are allowed orpermitted to be downloaded from the graphical configuration library 120or elsewhere within the configuration environment 102 into the operatingenvironment 105. Draft configurations or definitions may be maintained,stored, and edited solely within the configuration environment 102, insome embodiments. If draft configurations or definitions are storedwithin the configuration environment 102, the drafts are prevented frombeing downloaded into the operating environment 105. When aconfiguration engineer is satisfied with a draft display-relatedconfiguration or definition 112, 115, the engineer may explicitlypublish the display-related configuration or definition 112, 115 (e.g.,change its state to “published”) so that it is available for downloadand execution in the runtime process plant 10. In some embodiments, asingle user control may implement both the publishing and the subsequentdownload of the publication. In other embodiments, a publish usercontrol or command and a download user control or command are differentand distinct user controls provided by the configuration application110.

As such, multiple configuration engineers are able to create, modify,and test graphical configurations and definitions (and in somesituations, simultaneously) without impacting runtime operations of thesubject configurations, e.g., as illustrated by the m draftconfigurations of ViewN and the published configuration of the ViewN.Additionally, different versions of a same display view may be publishedand available for runtime operations, for example, when a same displayview is configured to have different combinations of operatorcustomizations that are downloaded to different areas of the plant,e.g., as illustrated by the two publications of View2. (Of course, thegraphical display configuration system 100 allows configurationengineers to re-name different publications of View2 as separate viewsinstead of different publications of the same view, if so desired.) Insome embodiments, at least some of the published display views andpublished display view elements are available out-of-the-box, that is,at least some published display views and published display viewelements are provided as defaults in the library 120. Such default viewsand elements may be edited or modified by configuration engineers usingthe graphical display configuration application 110, and the modifiedviews or elements may be published as additional or alternativepublished versions of the default objects 112, 115.

A particular display view configuration may be defined, e.g., byconfiguration engineers or users via the graphical display configurationapplication 110, to include (e.g., refer to, point to, or reference) oneor more display view element configurations, among other components.Similarly, in some instances, a particular display view elementconfiguration may be defined to include (e.g., refer to, point to, orreference) one or more other display view elements. Significantly,various display-related configurations or definitions (whether ofdisplay views and/or of display view elements) may respectively define aset of operator-selectable customizations that are made available forthe operator to modify the appearance of the corresponding display viewor display view element during runtime as the operator desires, withouthaving to create and/or download a revised configuration, and withoutthe display view, the display view element, or the user interface deviceon which the display view is executing having to obtain additionalconfiguration data indicative of the modification from another computingdevice (e.g., from a computing device or database included in theconfiguration environment 102, or from a computing device or databaseincluded in the operating environment 102 that locally storesconfiguration data or copies thereof). Additionally, in someembodiments, the particular display view configuration may also includeone or more global variables or scripts in addition to the other displayview elements referenced therein.

To illustrate, FIG. 2C depicts a snap shot of an example display view150 that is being configured by a user on a canvas provided by thegraphical display configuration application 110. At this point duringits configuration, the display view 150 has been defined as includingseveral display view elements 152 a-168 a. In particular, the displayview 150 includes a tabbed display element 152 a including four tabs 152a-1, 152 a-2, 152 a-3, and 152 a-4, and the tab 152 a-1 includes agraphic of a tank 155a including an input flow connection 158 a and anoutput flow connection 160 a. Additionally, the tank graphic 155 aincludes a fill animation 162 a via which the liquid level in the tankis represented. The presentation of the display view 150 may be at leastpartially influenced by one or more user controls included thereon,e.g., a language user control 165 a and a theme user control 168 a,which are able to be manipulated by an operator for customization at hisor her workstation or user interface 8. Additionally or alternatively,one or more similar user controls 165 a, 168 a may be provided at theworkstation or user interface 8 via the operator application 135executing the display view 150 at the workstation 8 (not shown in FIG.2C).

The configuration of the example display view 150 is captured or definedin a corresponding display view object 172 a which, in FIG. 2C, is adraft, working, or in-progress configuration object 172 a (or otherwisenot published). Similarly, the configuration of each of the display viewelement 152 a-168 a is captured or defined in one or more respectivedisplay view element objects 152 b-170 b (each of which, at the point intime illustrated by FIG. 2C, may or may not be respectively published,either individually, or as a whole with the display view 150). Forexample, the tabs 152 a-1, 152 a-2, 152 a-3, and 152 a-4 are defined bya graphical tab display element 152 a, which itself is defined by aninstance of the tab object 152 b, where each tab object instance hasbeen specifically configured to, for example, display a different textstring on its respective tabs 152 a-1, 152 a-2, 152 a-3, and 152 a-4 andto include other display characteristics and properties thereon (notshown). In some embodiments, each tab 152 a-1, 152 a-2, 152 a-3, and 152a-4 may be respectively configured to change its appearance (e.g.,indicators, background color, text color, animations, etc.) responsiveto live data, and thereby may be linked to one or more control elementswithin the operating environment 105 of the process plant 10. The tankgraphic 155 a is defined by an instance of the tank object 155 b, andthe tank object instance has been specifically configured to beassociated with a specific control tag LT123. Additionally, the fillanimation 162 a has been defined by an instance of the fill animationobject 162 b which specifies that the fill animation is a bottom-to-topfill. Further, the color of the fill animation 162 a is defined by aninstance of a fill color object 170 b to be operator-selectable betweenthe colors blue, red, white, and green. For example, the fill color maybe individually selectable, or may be selectable by virtue of theoperator selecting a particular theme which defines the fill color.

Moreover, as demonstrated in FIG. 2C, configurations of graphical objectinstances may be defined using other graphical objects and/or objectinstances. For example, the instance of the tab object 152 b thatdefines the tab 152 a-1 is defined to include the instance of the tankgraphic object 155 b that defines the tank graphic 155 a (including,inter alia, the specification therein of the control tag LT123) thereon.Similarly, the instance of the tank graphic object 155 b that definesthe tank graphic 155 a is itself defined to include the instance of thefill animation object 162 b for the fill animation 162 a, where theinstance of the fill animation object 162 b has been particularlyconfigured in this example to be a bottom-to-top fill animation. Still,the instance of the fill animation object 162 b defining the fillanimation 162 a is itself defined to include an instance of the fillcolor object 170 b, which defines therein a choice ofoperator-selectable fill colors (e.g., blue, red, white, and green) andadditionally defines the mutually exclusive selection and applicationthereof.

Generally speaking, a first graphical element object may be defined orconfigured to refer to (e.g., point to, reference, etc.) a secondgraphical element object, where the configuration of the secondgraphical element object defines the appearances and/or behaviors of thefirst graphical element object. In some embodiments, the configurationor the definition of the first graphical element object may additionallyinclude one or more object property values and/or scripts, if desired.The first graphical element object and the second graphical elementobject are independent and separate objects. That is, the firstgraphical element object and the second graphical element object are notincluded in the same object class, are not derived from each other, arenot related by parent/child object relationships, etc. Indeed, thesecond graphical element object may be referenced by another graphicalelement object and appropriately configured to thereby define theappearances and/or behaviors of the another graphical element object.

In some scenarios, the second graphical element object itself mayreference a third graphical element object, where the configuration ofthe third graphical element object defines the appearances and/orbehaviors of the second graphical element object. If desired, theconfiguration of the second graphical element object may additionallyinclude one or more object property values and/or scripts.

At any rate, turning back to FIG. 2C, the instance of the display viewobject 172 a defining the view 150 may be configured to display one ormore user controls 165 a, 168 a thereon. (As noted above, in someembodiments, one or more of the user controls 165 a, 168 a may beprovided by the operator application 135 that executes the configureddisplay view object 172 a at the user interface device 8 within theoperating environment 105, which is not depicted in FIG. 2C.) At anyrate, whether provided by the display view object 172 a and/or by theoperator application 135, each of the user controls 165 a, 168 a may bedefined, at least in part, by its respective object 165 b, 168 b. Inparticular, as illustrated in FIG. 2C, the language user control 165 ais defined by an instance of the multi-language object 165 b which, inthis example, has been configured to enable text to be represented ineither English, Arabic, or French. As such, during runtime, an operatormay manipulate the language user control 165 a to selectively change thelanguage that appears in the display view 150 to/from English, Arabic,or French. Similarly, the themes user control 168 a is defined by aninstance of the themes object 168 b, where the instance of the themes168 b, in this example, has been defined to allow the operator, duringruntime, to selectively change the theme of the display view 150 amongTheme1, Theme2, and Theme3. As such, during runtime, an operator maymanipulate the themes user control 168 a on the operator application 135to change the theme that appears in the display view 150 among Theme1,Theme2, and Theme3. Each of the languages and themes may be definedelsewhere in the graphical configuration database 120, e.g., in themanners described elsewhere in this disclosure.

Further, the display view 150 may be able to be included in variousother display view elements 115. For example, a particular Layout1(e.g., which may be configured as a particular instance of a layoutobject) may be defined to present the display view 150 in a first area,e.g., by linking the configuration 172 a of the display view 150 to thegraphical object defining the first area of Layout1. Another particularLayout2 (e.g., which may be configured as another particular instance ofthe layout object) may be defined to present the display view 150 in asecond area, e.g., by linking the display view configuration 172 a tothe graphical object defining the second area of Layout2. In anadditional or alternative implementation, the instance of the displayview object 172 a may reference one or several layouts (e.g., which maybe configured as particular instances of layout objects) that includethe display view 150. Each of the layouts that include the display view150 may be particularly configured to be or to not be presented to theoperator when presenting the display view 150 while executing in theruntime environment. In other words, while executing in the runtimeenvironment, the operator application 135 may present the display view150 according to one of the layouts based on the configuration of thedisplay view object 172 a. Additional discussion of layouts that areable to be provided by the graphical display configuration system 100 isprovided elsewhere in this disclosure. Similarly, the display view 150may be linked or otherwise associated with various display hierarchies,and additional discussion of display hierarchies that are provided bythe graphical display configuration system 100 is also providedelsewhere in this disclosure.

Returning to FIG. 2C, when the configuration engineer is satisfied withthe display view object 172 a that defines the content, appearances, andbehaviors of the display view 150 in the runtime environment 105, theconfiguration engineer may publish the display view object asrepresented in FIG. 2C by the reference 172 b.

In an embodiment in which display view elements objects are able to beindividually published, upon publication of the display view object 172b, any display view element objects 152 b-170 b that are not already ina published state may be automatically published, and/or the user may beprompted to manually publish display view element objects that are stillin a draft or in-progress state. That is, in such an embodiment, inorder for a display view object 172 a to be published, any displayelement objects included therein or linked thereto must also be in apublished state.

In another embodiment in which display view element objects are notindividually publishable, upon publication of the display view object172 b, the published configuration 172 b of the display view 150 isstored in the graphical configuration database 120, thereby making thepublished configuration 172 b available for download into the operatingenvironment 105 of the process plant 10, such as is shown in FIG. 2C. Insome embodiments, upon publication of the display view object 172 b, thepublished configuration 172 b is automatically downloaded into theoperating environment 105.

The published configuration of the display view object 172 b may bedownloaded to one or more user interface devices that are included inthe operating environment 105 for execution, as represented in FIG. 2Cby user interface devices UI-1, UI-2, UI-3. Each of the user interfacedevices UI-1, UI-2, UI-3 may take the form of the user interface device8 or the user interface device 122, for example, and the particular setof user interface devices to which the published display viewconfiguration 172 b is to be downloaded (and executed on) may bespecified by a user, e.g., via the graphical display configurationapplication 110 or via another user interface of the configurationenvironment 120. As such, each downloaded instance of the publisheddisplay view configuration 172 b may execute independently in theruntime environment 105 at its respective host user interface deviceUI-1, UI-2, UI-3.

Importantly, the published display view configuration 172 b, whenexecuting at its host device UI-1, UI-2, UI-3, allows operators or usersto customize the appearance and behaviors of a respective executingdisplay view 150 as desired within the runtime environment 105, andindependently of the runtime customization of other users. As shown inFIG. 2C, at UI-1, the user of UI-1 has changed the color of the fillanimation 162 a of the tank graphic 155 on the display view 150 to beblue, has selected that the text displayed on the display view 150 bepresented in French, and has selected that the display view 150 bepresented using Theme3. At UI-2, the user has changed the color of thefill animation 162 a to be white, has selected the text to be presentedin Arabic, and has selected Theme1. At UI-3, the user has changed thecolor of the fill animation 162 a to be red, has selected the text to bepresented in English, and has selected Theme2. The user selections andcustomizations implemented at user interface devices UI-1, UI-2, andUI-3 are effected solely using the respective published display viewconfigurations 172 b executing respectively at the host devices UI-1,UI-2, and UI-3. That is, to implement the operator-desired changes, noneof UI-1, UI-2, or UI-3 needs to obtain additional configuration datafrom the configuration environment or from any other computing device.Moreover, to implement the operator-desired changes, an updatedconfiguration for the display view 150 is not required to be downloadedand executed. Rather, each operator simply implements desired changes inline with the runtime execution of the display view 150 at his or herrespective user interface device UI-1, UI-2, UI-3, e.g., without needingto stop and re-start the display view 150. For example, if the user ofUI-I subsequently wishes to change the displayed theme from Theme3 toTheme2, the user may do so by merely making the selection via the ThemeUser Control 168 a executing at UI-1 (which may, as discussed above beprovided by the operator application 135 or by the display view 150),and in response the executing display view 150 will implement thechange, e.g., without having to communicate with any other computingdevice included in the configuration environment 102 and/or with anyother computing device that is able to access configuration data 120 orcopies thereof.

Of course, the example scenario depicted in FIG. 2C is meant to beillustrative but not limiting, and is only one of many possible usagescenarios of the graphical display configuration and usage system 100.Indeed, as is demonstrated within this disclosure, the graphical displayconfiguration and usage system 100 provides a configuration environment102 that is flexible, intuitive, and easy to maintain, whilesimultaneously providing an operating experience that supportsindependent, on-line operator customization of display views and/or ofdisplay elements included thereon. The various features and aspects(either alone, or in combination) of the graphical display configurationand usage system 100 which provide these and other benefits aredescribed in more detail below.

Display Navigational Hierarchy

Turning now to FIG. 3A, examples of types of display view elements thatare provided by the graphical display configuration and usage systemsand methods described herein are a hierarchy display view element and alayout display view element. As mentioned above, to generate graphics ina process control system, the graphical display configurationapplication 110 in the configuration environment 102 includes graphicaluser controls for defining hierarchies and layouts, thereby allowing aconfiguration engineer to define the hierarchy and layout graphically.Each display view may be made up of display view elements which definethe display view. For example, a “Main-Tanks” display view may includeseveral display view elements each representing a different tank. Adisplay view element in one display view may also be the subject ofanother display view at a higher level of detail having its own displayview elements. In this manner, a plant operator may navigate from adisplay view depicting a general overview of the process plant at thelowest level of detail to a display view depicting a single alarm ordevice within the process plant at one of the highest levels of detail.

In some embodiments, a display view depicts a section of a process plantand the display view elements include graphical representations ofprocess plant entities, such as tanks, mixers, valves, pumps, and/or anyother suitable equipment within a process plant. The display viewelements may also include graphical representations of process plantconnection entities that connect one piece of equipment to another, suchas pipes, electrical wires, conveyor belts, etc.

In some embodiments, the configuration engineer may define the alarms,trends, and/or process parameter values within a display view at aparticular level of detail. In other embodiments, the configurationengineer may define the number of alarms, trends, and/or processparameter values within the display view at a particular level ofdetail. The graphical display configuration application 110 or theoperator or operations application 135 executing on the operator userinterface device 122 may then automatically determine which alarms,trends, and/or process parameter values to include on the display viewbased on priority levels for the respective alarms, trends, and/orprocess parameter values. For example, the configuration engineer mayindicate that five process parameter values will be presented atparticular locations within the display view. Each of the processparameter values corresponding to the display view may be rankedaccording to priority level and the top five ranking process parametervalues may be presented in the display view. The priority levels may bedetermined by the configuration engineer, the operator, or may beautomatically determined based on a set of rules, such as whether aparticular process parameter value triggers an alarm.

To create a hierarchy of display views for navigating from a displayview depicting a general overview of the process plant to display viewsdepicting sections of the process plant at higher levels of detail, thegraphical display configuration application 110 includes graphical usercontrols for defining relationships or links between display views. Thegraphical display configuration application 110 may present a userinterface or a portion thereof for creating the hierarchy. The hierarchyUI may include indications of each of the display views defined in theconfiguration environment. The configuration engineer may then drag anddrop display views (or may use any other suitable graphical usercontrol) into a hierarchy pane to define the relationships or linksbetween the display views. For example, by dragging and dropping anindication of a “Tank 1” display view (e.g., the name “Tank 1,” an icon,etc.) onto an indication of a “Main-Tanks” display view, the graphicaldisplay configuration application 110 may determine that Tank 1 is a subview at a higher level of detail than the “Main-Tanks” display view. Inanother example, by dragging and dropping an indication of a “Tank-Feed”display view above or below the indication of the “Main-Tanks” displayview within the hierarchy pane, the graphical display configurationapplication 110 may determine that the “Tank-Feed” and “Main-Tanks”display views are at the same level of detail within the hierarchy.

Display view hierarchies may also be created for trend display viewsrepresenting historized process parameter values. For example, a processparameter such a flow rate through a valve may depend on one or severalinput or output process parameters, such as an inlet pressure at thevalve and an outlet pressure at the valve. A Level 1 trend display viewmay depict flow rates through the valve over time while a Level 2 trenddisplay sub view of the Level 1 trend display view may depict inlet andoutlet pressures at the valve over time. The configuration engineer maycreate the trend display view hierarchy in the configuration environment102, and an operator may maneuver between resulting trend display viewsand sub views (e.g., via navigation buttons) within the operatingenvironment 105 at increasing or decreasing levels of detail.

In some embodiments, a display view hierarchy may resemble a treestructure where a display view at the lowest level of detail (e.g.,Level 1) is the root node of the tree structure. Display views at thesecond lowest level of detail (e.g., Level 2) may be children nodes withrespect to the root node and may each have their own children nodes atthe third lowest level of detail (e.g., Level 3) which may begrandchildren nodes with respect to the root node. The configurationengineer may create several display view hierarchies which may eachcorrespond to different areas within a process plant or differentprocess plants. In this manner, each operator may view the display viewhierarchy representing the area for which she is responsible.

In addition to defining display view hierarchies, the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 includes graphical user controls fordefining a layout. As used herein, a “layout” may indicate the manner inwhich to divide a display screen area of an operator workstation topresent several display views on a display screen or a plurality ofdisplay screens for the operator workstation. For example, an operatorworkstation may include multiple monitors or display screens and thelayout may cause the operator workstation to present a different displayview on each of the display screens, so that the operator may watchseveral display views at a time. In another example, an operatorworkstation may include a single monitor or display screen and thelayout may cause the operator workstation to divide the display screeninto several regions (e.g., frames, sub-areas, or portions) and presenta different display view on each region of the display screen. Thegraphical display configuration application 110 may include graphicaluser controls for selecting the number of display screens and displayregions within each display screen for a layout. For example, theconfiguration engineer may generate a first layout having two displayscreens, where each display screen is divided into two display regions.Then the configuration engineer may define a display view type for eachof the divided display regions, such as watch area, alarm list,historized parameters, a faceplate, hierarchy level (e.g., Level 1,Level 2, Level 3), etc.

Furthermore, the layout may include relationships or links between thedisplay regions within the layout. For example, a first display regionwithin the layout may present hierarchy Level 1 type display views and asecond display region within the layout may present hierarchy Level 2type display views. The second display region may be configured topresent hierarchy Level 2 display views when the operator navigates fromhierarchy Level 1 in the first display region. The display view for thesecond display region depends on the activity of the operator withrespect to the first display region and the first display regioncontinues to present hierarchy Level 1 type display views. In anotherexample, display regions within the layout depicting alarm list orhistorized parameter display views may depend on display regions withinthe layout depicting control modules, so that the alarm list orhistorized parameter display views include alarms or parameters beingdisplayed within the control modules.

FIG. 3A illustrates, an example side-by-side view 300 of a graphicaldisplay configuration application UI 302 (which may, for example, be aninstance of the graphical display configuration application 110) and anoperator application UI 304 (which may, for example, be an instance ofthe operator application 135) depicting the display view elements duringruntime as defined by the graphical display configuration application UI302. More specifically, the graphical display configuration applicationUI 302 includes a hierarchy pane 310 indicating the hierarchy of a setof display views. For example, the “Tanks-Ovw” display view may be atLevel 1 of the display view hierarchy and the “Tank-Feed” and“Main-Tanks” display views may be at Level 2. The “FeedHt X” and“FeedMixr” display views may be sub views of the “Tank-Feed” displayview and the “Tank1,” “Tank2,” and “Surge” display views may be subviews of the “Main-Tanks” display view at Level 3. Additionally, the“T2SOP” display view may be a sub view of the “Tank 2” display view atLevel 4. As mentioned above, a configuration engineer may define thedisplay view hierarchy by dragging and dropping indications of thedisplay views into a hierarchy pane 310 presented by the graphicaldisplay configuration application 110 or by using any other suitablegraphical user controls. Indications of new display views may also bedefined in the display view hierarchy before the corresponding displayviews are created. The configuration engineer may define where the newdisplay view is located within the display view hierarchy and thencreate the new display view.

In addition to depicting the hierarchy pane 310, the graphical displayconfiguration application UI 302 depicts a layout 312 which divides adisplay into four display screens and four display regions 314 a-d (alsoreferred to interchangeably herein as “display sub-areas” or “displayportions”), and each display region 314 a-d has a corresponding displayview type. For example, the upper left corner display region 314 a isdefined to present hierarchy Level 1 display views. The lower left andlower right corner display regions 314 b-c are defined to presenthierarchy Level 2 and Level 3 display views and the upper right cornerdisplay region 314 d is defined to present alarm list display views. Thelayout 312 also defines relationships or links between the displayregions. For example, the lower left corner display region 314 bautomatically presents hierarchy Level 2 display views in response to anoperator navigating from a hierarchy Level 1 display view to a hierarchyLevel 2 display view in the upper left corner display region 314 a. Inanother example, the upper right corner display region 314 d mayautomatically display alarm lists of alarms included in one or more ofthe display views in the other display regions 314 a-c.

The operator application UI 304 includes the layout 312 defined by thegraphical display configuration application 110 which divides a displayof an operator workstation into four display screens and four displayregions 318 a-d. The upper left corner display region 318 a presentshierarchy Level 1 display views. The lower left and lower right cornerdisplay regions 318 b-c present hierarchy Level 2 and Level 3 displayviews and the upper right corner display region 318 d presents alarmlist display views. The operator application UI 304 may present displayviews according to the hierarchy, layout, and/or other display viewelements defined by the graphical display configuration application 110.

The graphical display configuration application UI 302 also includes anadministration section 316 (which may, for example, relate to theadministration of the operations application/environment 304) forassigning hierarchies, layouts, and/or themes to a particular operatorworkstation or set of operator workstations. In this manner, operatorworkstations for operators who monitor one section of the process plantmay present hierarchies related to that section and may be restrictedfrom accessing hierarchies related to other sections of the processplant. In some embodiments, a configuration engineer may assign allhierarchies and layouts to each operator workstation via theadministration section 316 and the operators may select the layout andhierarchy to present on their respective operator workstations.

FIG. 3B illustrates a home tab 350 of the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 for generating display views that are tobe executed on an operator workstation. The home tab 350 includes a newdisplay button 352 for creating a display view, a new layout button 354for creating a layout, and a new display hierarchy button 356 forcreating a hierarchy of display views. The home tab 350 also includes aconfiguration canvas 366 for configuring display view elements within adisplay view. The display view elements may be viewed in a configuremode upon selection of a configure button (not shown) and/or a previewmode upon selection of a preview button 364. In an alternate embodiment,the draft or working configuration of the display view elements may bepresented (e.g., by default, or continuously presented) on the canvasprovided by the configuration application 110, and only a preview button364 may be displayed (e.g., as is illustrated by FIG. 3B), an activationof which causes a preview of the display view to be displayed in anotherarea or window of the user interface provided by the configurationapplication 110. The preview mode or the separate display of the previewpresents a preview of the display view as it would appear duringruntime, so that a configuration engineer may see how the display viewand display view elements will look to the operator. For example, thedisplay view elements may be presented with themes, colors, etc.selected in the configuration mode. The configuration engineer maytoggle graphical user controls, such as navigation bars, tab bars, etc.on the display view in the preview mode to see how the display viewchanges in response to user interactions.

To create a display view, the home tab 350 includes graphical usercontrols for selecting display view elements, such as a basic displayelements button 360 which includes shapes such as rectangles, squares,circles, etc., arrows, connectors, text boxes, charts, or any othersuitable basic display elements. A display view element selection paneor palette 370 may also be included for selecting display view elementssuch as faceplate elements, tab elements, bar graph elements, dataelements, datalink elements, write elements, buttons, sliders, alarmelements, alarm detail elements, function block elements, navigation barelements, GEM elements (e.g., such as described in co-owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/692,450 filed on Aug. 31, 2017 and entitled“Derived and Linked Definitions with Override,” the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated by reference herein), or any other suitabledisplay view elements. The configuration engineer may select displayview elements by dragging and dropping the display view elements intothe configuration canvas 366 or by using any other suitable graphicaluser controls. For example, in FIG. 3B the configuration engineer mayselect the new display button 352 to create a display view for Display1(ref. no. 368) and may drag and drop a rectangle 374 from the basicdisplay elements button 360 into the configuration canvas 366.

When the rectangle 374 is selected, the properties of the rectangle 374are presented in an editing pane 380. The editing pane 380 may indicateseveral properties of the rectangle, such as the rectangle name(Rectangle 1), fill color (white), fill percentage (100%), line color(black), line thickness (1 pt.), line style (solid), etc. Each of theproperties may be adjusted in the editing pane 380 via graphical usercontrols such as drop-down menus or free-form text fields. For example,the line thickness property may include a drop-down menu for selectingone of several line thickness values, such as 0.5 pt., 1 pt., 1.5 pt.,etc. The fill color property may include a color palette for selectingone of several colors or a free-form text field for entering RGB colorvalues. In some embodiments, the properties may also be adjusted viagraphical user controls at the rectangle 374, such as via a pop-up menuin response to right clicking or double clicking on the rectangle 374.The properties included in the editing pane 380 are merely a few exampleproperties for the rectangle 374. Additional or alternative adjustableproperties may also be presented.

Furthermore, relationships or links between display view elements may beestablished by for example, connecting display view elements via linesor other connectors. Relationships or links may also be established byreferencing other display view elements in the properties of a displayview element. For example, a first display view element may represent atank in the process plant. A second display view element may represent aprocess parameter value for the tank such as a fill percentage. In somescenarios, the configuration engineer may reference the first displayview element in the properties of the second display view element sothat the first and second display view elements are associated andincluded together in one or several display views. In some embodiments,each of the linked display view elements associated with a process plantentity or process control element may reference a control tag thatrefers to control modules, nodes, devices (e.g., field devices), and/orsignals that are received and/or transmitted by devices, controlmodules, or nodes corresponding to the process plant entity.

In any event, the home tab 350 also includes a publish button 358 topublish a graphic (a display view, layout, or display view hierarchy) tothe graphical configuration database 120. The published graphics maythen be provided to a set of operator workstations and presented to thecorresponding operators during runtime.

Auto-Population of Display Areas with Historized Parameters

In currently known process control systems, to view a trend ofhistorized process parameters within the operating environment 105 ofthe process plant 10, e.g., to view the values of particular processparameters over time, e.g., at an operator workstation or user interfacedevice 8 of the operating environment 105, a faceplate typicallyincludes a trend button to allow an operator to open a trend displayview of process parameters corresponding to the faceplate. However, thetrend display view may be limited by the process parameters thatcorrespond to the faceplate and the operator may not be able to view thetrend display view while viewing additional display views.

Accordingly, the graphical display configuration and usage systems andmethods described herein and more specifically, the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 includes a trend display view which may bea display view type within a display region of a layout. In someembodiments, the trend display view may include one or several charts orchart display view elements, each presenting a graphical view ofhistorized process parameter values for a different process parameterover a predetermined period of time.

As described above with reference to FIG. 3A, the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 within the configuration environment 102includes graphical user controls for defining a layout having a displayview type for each of one or several divided display regions.Furthermore, the layout may include relationships or links between thedisplay regions within the layout. Accordingly, the configurationengineer may define a display region within the layout to present trenddisplay views. Additionally, rather than preconfiguring the processparameters for which to present historized process parameter values in atrend display view, the configuration engineer may define a relationshipor link between the trend display view and another display region, e.g.,a related display region. Accordingly, the definition of the trenddisplay view defines a link between the trend display view and therelated display region, e.g., as a parameter of the trend display viewobject. More specifically, the trend display view object may include arelationship or link parameter. When the configuration engineer selectsa display region in which to link to the trend display view viagraphical user controls of the graphical display configurationapplication 110 within the configuration environment 102, the trenddisplay view objects sets the relationship or link parameter to therelated display region.

As such, when executing the operating environment 105, the correspondingoperator application 135 may then automatically identify the processparameters within a display view of the related display region, and thetrend display view may present historized process parameter values forthe automatically identified process parameters. When the operatorswitches display views in the related display region (e.g., bynavigating to a different section of the process plant or navigatingwithin a display view hierarchy to display views having higher or lowerlevels of detail), the operator application 135 automatically identifiesthe process parameters within the new display view of the relateddisplay region and the trend display view may present historized processparameter values for the automatically identified process parameters.

During configuration, the graphical display configuration application110 may include graphical user controls for defining a threshold ormaximum number of process parameters to include in the trend displayview, the time period for the historized process parameter values (e.g.,for the previous 30 seconds, the previous minute, the previous hour, theprevious day, the previous month, etc.), whether to include a respectivetrend line, etc. In other embodiments, the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 includes a graphical user control, such asa check-box for selecting “Auto-chart,” and the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 automatically selects the number ofprocess parameters to include in the trend display view, the time periodfor the historized process parameter values, whether to include arespective trend line, etc., according to default settings. The defaultthreshold or maximum number may be based on the level of detail for thedisplay view presented in the related display region. For example, thedefault threshold number may increase as the level of detail increases,thereby causing the trend display view to present more processparameters for control modules, function blocks, or sections of theprocess plant that are presented at higher levels of detail. The defaultthreshold or maximum number may also be based on the size of the userinterface for the user interface device 8 executing the operatorapplication 135.

In any event, the parameters for the trend display view are downloadedinto a user interface device 8 executing the operator application 135 inthe operating environment, such as the related display region, thethreshold or maximum number of process parameters to include in thetrend display view, the time period for the historized process parametervalues, whether to include a respective trend line, priority levels forthe process parameters, whether the priority levels can be adjusted,etc. Then during runtime, the operator application 135 may identify theprocess parameters within a display view of the related display regionand present, within the trend display view, the number of processparameters defined by the graphical display configuration application110. The display view of the related display region may be associatedwith a particular set of process parameters and/or each display viewelement within the display view may be associated with one or moreprocess parameters. For example, a valve display view element of arelated display region may be associated with a flow rate through thevalve, an inlet pressure at the valve, an outlet pressure at the valve,etc. The valve display view element may reference each of these processparameters and the operator application 135 may identify the processparameters referenced by the valve display view element.

When the display view of the related display region includes fewerprocess parameters than the threshold or maximum number defined by thegraphical display configuration application 110, a portion of the trenddisplay view may be left blank or the charts displaying the otherhistorized process parameter values may be expanded to fill the trenddisplay view. When the display view of the related display regionincludes more than the threshold number of process parameters, theprocess parameters may be ranked. Process parameters ranked above athreshold ranking corresponding to the maximum number may be included inthe trend display view. Process parameters may be ranked in any suitablemanner. For example, the operator may rank process parameters or theprocess parameters may be ranked automatically based on whether aprocess parameter is associated with an alarm, whether a processparameter is an input or output of a control module or function block,etc.

More specifically, the graphical display configuration application 110may include graphical user controls for the configuration engineer torank process parameters or set priority levels for the processparameters in the configuration environment 102. The graphical displayconfiguration application 110 may also include graphical user controlsfor the configuration engineer to select whether the operator can adjustthe process parameter rankings or priority levels in the operatingenvironment 105. If the operator cannot adjust the process parameterrankings or priority levels (as determined by the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 and provided to the operator application135), the process parameters are ranked or assigned priority levelsautomatically or ranked or assigned priority levels in the mannerselected at the graphical display configuration application 110 by theconfiguration engineer. If the operator can adjust the process parameterrankings or priority levels (as determined by the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 and provided to the operator application135), the operator application 135 presents graphical user controls forthe operator to re-rank the process parameters or re-assign prioritylevels in the operating environment 105. The process parameters mayinitially have default rankings or priority levels determinedautomatically or in accordance with the configuration engineer'sselections.

In yet other embodiments, the trend display view may include a graphicaluser control for the operator to select a particular display view orcontrol module from which to identify process parameters for populatingthe trend display view.

Accordingly, the process parameters for populating the trend displayview may be default process parameters as determined by the threshold ormaximum number defined by the graphical display configurationapplication 110 and/or respective default priority levels for theprocess parameters. The process parameters for populating the trenddisplay view may also be selected by the configuration engineer at thegraphical configuration application 110 (e.g., by ranking processparameters or setting priority levels for the process parameters in theconfiguration environment 102). Furthermore, the process parameters forpopulating the trend display view may be selected by the operator at theoperator application 135 (e.g., by ranking process parameters or settingpriority levels for the process parameters in the operating environment105).

FIG. 4A illustrates an example view 400 provided by an operatorapplication 135 for presenting historized process parameter valuescorresponding to process parameters in a display view executing in theoperating environment 105. The example view 400 includes a layout havingfour display regions 402, 404, 406, and 408 on four display screenswhich may correspond to four monitors at the operator workstation. Afirst display region 402 may have a hierarchy Level 1-4 display viewtype which presents display views of sections of the process plant atdifferent hierarchy levels. In some embodiments, the first displayregion 402 includes a navigation bar for navigating within a displayview hierarchy. A second display region 404 may have a watch areadisplay view type which presents a configurable watch area of alarms,process parameter values, etc. A third display region 406 may have ahistorized parameters display view type which presents a trend displayview having one or several chart display view elements. In someembodiments, the configuration engineer may have defined, e.g., withinthe configuration environment 102 via the graphical displayconfiguration application 110, a relationship or link between the thirddisplay region 406 and the first display region 402 in the graphicaldisplay configuration application 110. As such, within the operatingenvironment 105, the trend display view in the third display region 406may then depict historized process parameter values for processparameters corresponding to the process section display view in thefirst display region 402.

The trend display view in the third display region 406 may be defined topresent charts for up to four process parameters, for example. Eachchart may present historized process parameter values for the previouspre-defined number of minutes (e.g., one minute, five minutes, tenminutes, etc.) and a respective trend line. Each chart may be scaledautomatically based on the historized process parameter values to fitthe display area designated for the chart within the trend display view.In an example scenario, the operator application 135 automaticallyidentifies each of the process parameters corresponding to the processsection display view in the first display region 402. In someembodiments, the operator application 135 identifies a subset of theprocess parameters for which historical data is obtained. In any event,in this example the operator application 135 identifies one parametercorresponding to Tank VE-100 (ref. no. 410). The process parameter isthe fill percentage for Tank VE-100 (ref. no. 410). The operatorapplication 135 then retrieves historized fill percentage values overthe threshold time period (e.g., five minutes) for example, from a datahistorian device and presents the historized fill percentage values in achart 412 within the trend display view of the third display region 406.The chart indicates that the fill percentage for Tank VE-100 (ref. no.410) was around 30% five minutes ago, remained constant for about thefirst three minutes and then increased over the last two minutes toabout 70%. The trend display view may continuously or periodically(e.g., every millisecond, every second, every minute, etc.) update thehistorized process parameter values to include the most recenthistorized process parameter values over the threshold time period.

However, this is merely one example trend display view for ease ofillustration only. In other embodiments, the operator application 135may identify several process parameters corresponding to Tank VE-100(ref. no. 410) and Pump PU-110, which are process control elementsrepresented by display view elements in the first display region 402.The trend display view in the third display region 406 may includecharts of historized process parameter values for each of the identifiedprocess parameters. Also in some embodiments, the operator can adjustprocess parameter values in the operating environment of the processplant by interacting with the first display region 402. For example, thefirst display region 402 may include user controls for the operator toincrease or decrease the fill percentage for Tank VE-100 (ref. no. 410)during run-time. In this manner, the operator can monitor the chart 412depicting historized fill percentage values in the trend display view.When the operator sees the tank rapidly filling according to the chart412 for example, she may decrease the tank fill percentage via usercontrols at the operator application 135.

When the operator navigates to a different display view within the firstdisplay region (e.g., via a navigation bar), the operator application135 may identify the process parameters corresponding to the new displayview. The trend display view in the third display region 406 may presentcharts of historized process parameter values for the process parameterscorresponding to the new display view.

In some embodiments, the operator application 135 automaticallyidentifies process parameters for a particular display view elementrepresenting a process control element within a display view of arelated display region (e.g., from the respective display view-relateddefinitions or configurations 112, 115 for the display view element),such as a function block display view element within a control moduledisplay view or a process plant entity display view element within aprocess section display view. The particular process control elementwhose corresponding historized process parameter values are to bepresented within the display view may be selected by the operator via agraphical user control provided by the operator application 135 withinthe operating environment 105, or may be preconfigured to be associatedwith the display view via the graphical display configurationapplication 110 within the configuration environment 102. For example,the configuration engineer may have defined process control elementswithin display views for presenting corresponding historized processparameter values.

While the trend display view in FIG. 4A is illustrated within a displayregion 406 of a layout, a trend display view may also be a display viewelement within another display view. For example, the trend display viewmay be included within the process section display view in the firstdisplay region 402. Additionally, the layout may include multiple trenddisplay views in different display regions and/or any suitablecombination of trend display views and trend display view elements maybe included within other display views in the layout.

FIG. 4B illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 430 forconfiguring a display of historized process parameter values. The method430 may be performed by the graphical display configuration application110, the operator application 135, or any suitable combination of theseoperating on one or more UI devices 8.

At block 432, a selection of a first display region within a layout of adisplay view may be received for presenting a trend display view in aprocess control system. For example, a graphical display configurationapplication 110 may include graphical user controls for defining alayout having a display view type for each of one or several divideddisplay regions. Furthermore, the layout may include relationships orlinks between the display regions within the layout. The configurationengineer may define a display region within the layout for presenting atrend display view.

Then at block 434, the configuration engineer may select a seconddisplay region within the layout, where the second display regionincludes a display view having process parameters to associate with thetrend display view. More specifically, the second display regionpresents graphical representations of control modules, function blocks,or sections of the process plant which include display view elementsrepresenting process control elements, such as physical or logicalelements. For example, rather than preconfiguring the process parameterspresenting historized process parameter values in the trend displayview, the configuration engineer may define a relationship or linkbetween the trend display view and another display region having adisplay view that includes process parameters. In other embodiments, thegraphical display configuration application 110 automatically selects adefault second display region to associate with the trend display view.For example, the default second display region may include any displayregion that presents a graphical representation of a control module,function block, or section of the process plant.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, based on relationships or links toother display region(s) as defined in its configuration, thecorresponding operator application 135, while executing in the operatingenvironment 105, obtains an identifier for each of the process controlelements being presented in the linked display region (the seconddisplay region) such as control tags. The trend display view can thenprovide the control tags as identifiers to a data historian device,which in turn, retrieves a set of historized process parameter valuescorresponding to each control tag. When the display view within thelinked display region changes, the operator application 135 obtainsidentifiers for each of the process control elements being presented inthe new display view within the linked display region. Also in someembodiments, the configuration engineer may select a time period for theset of historized process parameter values (e.g., the previous 30seconds, previous minute, the previous hour, the previous day, theprevious month, etc.), and the selected time period or a default timeperiod is provided to the data historian device for retrievinghistorized process parameter values during the selected or default timeperiod.

At block 436, the configuration engineer may select a threshold ormaximum number of process parameters to include in the trend displayview. For example, the graphical display configuration application 110may include a default threshold number (e.g., two) and a user controlfor selecting a different threshold number. In some embodiments, thedefault threshold number may be based on the size of the user interfacefor the user interface device 8 executing the operator application 135,or the configuration engineer may select, via graphical user controls,the threshold or maximum number of process parameters to be based on thesize of the user interface. Accordingly, the default threshold number isnot necessarily a constant and can vary based on the screen size of theuser interface device 8. Also in some embodiments, the default thresholdnumber may be based on the level of detail for the display viewpresented in the linked display region. For example, the defaultthreshold number may increase as the level of detail increases, therebycausing the trend display view to present more process parameters forcontrol modules, function blocks, or sections of the process plant thatare presented at higher levels of detail. In any event, if for example,the configuration engineer selects a threshold number of four, the trenddisplay view may present indications of historized process parametervalues for up to four process parameters included in the second displayregion. More specifically, the indications may be graphical depictionsof the historized process parameter values such as a chart with a trendline for each process parameter. In this example, the trend display viewmay include up to four charts representing the historized processparameter values over time for up to four process parameters. In otherembodiments, there may not be a threshold number or the defaultthreshold number may be sufficiently large enough to ensure thatindications of historized process parameter values are included for eachof the process parameters being presented in the second display region.

In any event, the resulting display view including the linked first andsecond display regions is then downloaded to a user interface device forexecution, e.g., as an instance of the operating application 135 in anoperating environment 105 of the process plant (block 438). The firstdisplay region includes a trend display view and the second displayregion presents a graphical representation of a control module, functionblock, or section of the process plant. In this manner, an operator mayview different control modules, function blocks, or sections of theprocess plant during run-time and historized process parameter valuescorresponding to the control modules, function blocks, or processsections in the same display. In some embodiments, the trend displayview continuously or periodically (e.g., every millisecond, everysecond, every minute, etc.) retrieves and displays updated historizedprocess parameter values, so that the operator can view trends inreal-time.

In addition to generating the trend display view, the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 may assign priority levels to processparameters. The process parameters for a particular display region arethen ranked according to priority level, and the process parametersranked above the maximum number are included in the trend display view.The priority levels may be assigned in any suitable manner. For example,the configuration engineer or the operator may assign a priority tolevel to each process parameter in the process plant or each processparameter in a particular control module, function block, or section ofthe process plant. As mentioned above, the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 may include graphical user controls forthe configuration engineer to rank process parameters or set prioritylevels for the process parameters in the configuration environment 102.The graphical display configuration application 110 may also includegraphical user controls for the configuration engineer to select whetherthe operator can adjust the process parameter rankings or prioritylevels in the operating environment 105. If the operator cannot adjustthe process parameter rankings or priority levels (as determined by thegraphical display configuration application 110 and provided to theoperator application 135), the process parameters are ranked or assignedpriority levels automatically or ranked or assigned priority levels inthe manner selected at the graphical display configuration application110 by the configuration engineer. If the operator can adjust theprocess parameter rankings or priority levels (as determined by thegraphical display configuration application 110 and provided to theoperator application 135), the operator application 135 presentsgraphical user controls for the operator to re-rank the processparameters or re-assign priority levels in the operating environment105. The process parameters may also have default priority levelsassigned based on whether a process parameter is associated with analarm, whether a process parameter is an input or output of a controlmodule or function block, etc.

FIG. 4C illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 460 forpresenting historized process parameter values at an operatorworkstation. The method 460 may be performed by the graphical displayconfiguration application 110, the operator application 135, or anysuitable combination of these operating on one or more UI devices 8.

At block 461, a graphical representation of a control module, functionblock, or section of the process plant is presented in a first displayregion within a layout of a display view. The control module, functionblock, or process section includes a set of process control elements(e.g., valves, tanks, pumps, etc.). For example, the first displayregion may be similar to the display region 402 which presents displayviews of sections of the process plant, as shown in FIG. 4A.

At block 462, a trend display view is presented in a second displayregion of the layout of the display view, similar to the trend displayview 406 as shown in FIG. 4A. The trend display view presentsindications of historized process parameter values for up to a thresholdor maximum number of process parameters. More specifically, theindications may be graphical depictions of the historized processparameter values such as a chart with a trend line for each processparameter. In some embodiments, the threshold or maximum number ofprocess parameters may be determined based on the on the size of theuser interface for the user interface device 8 executing the operatorapplication 135. In other embodiments, the threshold or maximum numberof process parameters is a constant that is set at the graphical displayconfiguration application 110 in the configuration environment 102.Additionally, the trend display view is linked to the first displayregion, such that the operator application 135 automatically identifiesthe process parameters within the first display region and the trenddisplay view presents historized process parameter values for theautomatically identified process parameters.

In some embodiments, the trend display view or the operator application135 obtains identifiers for each of the process control elementsrepresented by display view elements in the first display region (e.g.,control tags) from the respective display view-related definitions orconfigurations 112, 115 of the display view elements that represent theprocess control elements. The operator application 135 then provides thecontrol tags as identifiers to a data historian device, which in turn,retrieves a set of historized process parameter values corresponding toeach control tag. Also in some embodiments, the operator application 135provides a time period for the set of historized process parametervalues (e.g., the previous 30 seconds, previous minute, the previoushour, the previous day, the previous month, etc.) to the data historiandevice for retrieving historized process parameter values during theprovided time period.

For example, the display view in the first display region may beassociated with a particular set of process parameters and/or eachdisplay view element within the display view may be associated with oneor more process parameters. For example, a valve display view element inthe first display region may be associated with process parameterscorresponding to a flow rate through the valve, an inlet pressure at thevalve, an outlet pressure at the valve, etc. The valve display viewelement may reference each of these process parameters and the operatorapplication 135 may identify, via the defined relationship or link tothe first display region, the valve display view element and/or processparameters referenced by the valve display view element. For example,the operator application 135 may determine a control tag for the valvebased on the valve display view element included in the first displayregion, and provide the control tag for the valve to the data historiandevice, which in turn, provides historized process parameter values forthe flow rate through the valve, the inlet pressure at the valve, theoutlet pressure at the valve, etc., over the previous 30 seconds.

In some embodiments, the graphical display configuration application 110identifies sets of process parameters corresponding to each display viewand the operator application 135 retrieves the identified set of processparameters corresponding to a particular display view during runtime. Inother embodiments, the operator application 135 obtains processparameters corresponding to a display view during runtime by identifyingeach process control element referenced by the display view elements inthe display view and providing an identifier for each process controlelement to the data historian device. Then each set of historizedprocess parameter values may be presented in the trend display viewalong with a trend line, such as in a chart display view element.

As described above, the data historian device collects and stores someor all of the data provided across the data highway. In someembodiments, several data historian devices are included where eachdevice stores different sets of data. A set of historized processparameter values for a particular process parameter may be stored in oneof the data historian devices. The operator application 135 may retrievethe historized process parameter values by for example, providing acontrol tag for a corresponding process control element to theparticular data historian device that stores data associated with thecontrol tag. Accordingly, for each control tag the operator application135 may hardcode identification information for the corresponding datahistorian device that stores data associated with the control tag.

In other embodiments, duplicate sets of data are stored in multiple datahistorian devices. In yet other embodiments, the data historian devicesstore different sets of data and communicate with each other to retrieveand provide historized process parameter values associated with aparticular control tag and/or a “host” data historian device identifiesand retrieves data from the data historian device that stores historizedprocess parameter values associated with a particular control tag. Inthis manner, the operator application 135 may retrieve historizedprocess parameter values by for example, providing a control tagassociated with the corresponding process control element to any of thedata historian devices. The operator application 135 does not need tohardcode identification information associating data historian deviceswith corresponding control tags. Additionally, data may be migrated fromone data historian device to the next without requiring any changes tothe operation application, or if one data historian device isexperiencing a failure the data may be retrieved from another datahistorian device.

In any event, at block 464, a request is received to present a graphicalrepresentation of a new control module, function block, or processsection in the first display region. For example, the request isreceived in response to the operator navigating to a different displayview within the first display region (e.g., via a navigation bar). Thenew control module, function block, or process section includes a newset of process control elements which may be different from the processcontrol elements included in the first control module, function block,or process section. In response to receiving the request, the operatorapplication 135 obtains identifiers for each of the process controlelements included in the new control module, function block, or processsection (block 466), such as in a manner previously discussed. Theprocess control element identifiers are provided to a data historiandevice (block 468) to retrieve a set of historized process parametervalues corresponding to each process control element identifier (block470). Then the trend display view presents charts of historized processparameter values for process parameters corresponding to the new controlmodule, function block, or process section (block 472).

In some embodiments, the trend display view may be configured to presentup to a threshold or maximum number of charts corresponding to athreshold or maximum number of process parameters. Accordingly, theidentified process parameters may be ranked and the process parametersranked above a threshold ranking corresponding to the maximum number maybe included in the trend display view. In some embodiments, the operatormay select the process parameters to present in the trend display viewand/or may select the display view elements within the first displayregion for presenting corresponding historized process parameter values.

Embodiments of the techniques described in the present disclosure mayinclude any number of the following aspects, either alone orcombination:

1. A method for configuring a display of historized process parametervalues in a process plant, the method comprising: obtaining, via a userinterface of a computing device executing a graphical configurationapplication in a configuration environment of a process plant, anindication of a first display region that is included in a layout of adisplay view and in which a trend display view is to be presented in anoperating environment of the process plant; identifying, by thegraphical configuration application, a second display region included inthe layout of the display view to link to the trend display view, suchthat the trend display view presents, in the operating environment ofthe process plant, indications of one or more sets of historized processparameter values of one or more process parameters corresponding to oneor more process control elements that are indicated in the seconddisplay region; generating, by the graphical configuration application,a link between the first and second display regions; and downloading theconfigured display view including the link from the configurationenvironment into a user interface device for execution in the operatingenvironment of the process plant to thereby cause a presentation, at theuser interface device in the trend display view of the first displayregion and based on the link included in the downloaded configureddisplay view, of respective trends of the one or more process parameterscorresponding to the one or more process control elements indicated inthe second display region, the one or more process control elementsindicated in the second display region including at least one of acontrol module, function block, or a process section of the processplant.

2. The method according to aspect 1, wherein identifying a seconddisplay region included in the layout of the display view to associatewith the trend display view includes receiving, via the user interfaceof the graphical configuration application, a selection of the seconddisplay region to associate with the trend display view.

3. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, furthercomprising: determining, by the graphical configuration application, amaximum number of process parameters to present in the trend displayview.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, whereindetermining the maximum number of process parameters to present in thedisplay view includes: presenting, via the user interface of thegraphical configuration application, a user control for selecting themaximum number of process parameters to present in the display view; andreceiving, via the user control, a selection of the maximum number.

5. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, furthercomprising: assigning priority levels to the one or more processparameters corresponding to the second display region, wherein the oneor more process parameters corresponding to the second display regionare ranked according to priority level, and respective indications ofsets of historized process parameter values of respective processparameters corresponding to the second display region and ranked abovethe maximum number are presented in the trend display view.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, wherein themaximum number of process parameters to present in the trend displayview increases as a level of detail for the second display regionindicating one or more process control elements increases.

7. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, wherein theone or more process parameters are default process parameters or areselected at the graphical configuration application or an operatorapplication.

8. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, whereinobtaining the indication of the first display region in which the trenddisplay view is to be presented includes obtaining the indication of thefirst display region in which a trend display view including one or morecharts is to be presented, each of the one or more charts presenting agraphical depiction of a different one of the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values.

9. The method according to any one of the preceding aspects, configuringthe trend display view to, when executing in the operating environmentof the process plant: obtain, from the second display region and basedon the link, a respective identifier for each process control elementindicated in the second display region, retrieve, via a data historiandevice and based on the obtained identifiers, the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values of the one or more process controlelements indicated in the second display region, and present arespective graphical depiction of at least one of the retrieved one ormore sets of historized process parameter values on the trend displayview.

10. A method for presenting historized process parameter values in aprocess plant, the method comprising: presenting, via a user interfaceof a computing device executing an operator application in an operatingenvironment of a process plant, indications of process control elementsin a first display region included in a layout of a display view, eachof the process control elements corresponding to one or more processparameters; obtaining a link between the first display region and asecond display region including a trend display view, wherein the linkindicates that the trend display view presents indications of one ormore sets of historized process parameter values of the one or moreprocess parameters corresponding to the one or more process controlelements presented in the linked first display region; and presenting,via the user interface, the trend display view in the second displayregion included in the layout of the display view, the trend displayview including the indications of the one or more sets of historizedprocess parameter values of the one or more process parameterscorresponding to the one or more process control elements presented inthe first display region based on the obtained link.

11. The method according to aspect 10, wherein the first display regionpresents indications of first process control elements corresponding toa first control module, function block, or process section of theprocess plant and further comprising: receiving, via the user interface,a request to present a graphical representation of a second controlmodule, function block, or process section in the first display region;presenting, via the user interface, indications of second processcontrol elements corresponding to the second control module, functionblock, or process section in the first display region, each of thesecond process control elements corresponding to one or more secondprocess parameters; and presenting, via the user interface, the trenddisplay view in the second display region within the layout of thedisplay view, the trend display view including indications of one ormore sets of historized process parameter values of the one or moresecond process parameters corresponding to the one or more secondprocess control elements presented in the first display region.

12. The method according to either one of aspect 10 or aspect 11,further comprising: obtaining, by the operator application from thefirst display region and based on the link, a respective identifier foreach of the process control elements presented in the first displayregion; providing the respective identifiers for each of the processcontrol elements to a data historian device; and receiving, from thedata historian device, the one or more sets of historized processparameter values of the one or more process parameters corresponding tothe one or more process control elements.

13. The method according to any one of aspects 10-12, wherein therespective identifiers for each of the process control elementspresented in the first display region are obtained in response toreceiving a request to present a graphical representation of a newcontrol module, function block, or process section in the first displayregion.

14. The method according to any one of aspects 10-13, furthercomprising: obtaining a maximum number of process parameters to presentin the display view; and presenting, via the user interface, the trenddisplay view including the indications of the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values corresponding to at most the maximumnumber of process parameters.

15. The method according to any one of aspects 10-14, furthercomprising: assigning a priority level to each of the process parameterscorresponding to the first display region; ranking the processparameters according to the respective priority levels; and presenting,via the user interface, the trend display view including indications ofone or more of the sets of historized process parameter values rankedabove the maximum number.

16. The method according to any one of aspects 10-15, wherein the datahistorian device includes a plurality of data historian devices, andwherein providing the identifier for each of the process controlelements to a data historian device includes providing the respectiveidentifiers for each of the process control elements to at least one ofthe plurality of data historian devices which provides the one or moresets of historized process parameter values corresponding to eachprocess control element to the computing device.

17. The method according to any one of aspects 10-16, wherein for eachof the process control elements, the plurality of data historian devicescommunicate with each other to identify a data historian device of theplurality of data historian devices that stores the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values corresponding to the respectiveprocess control element.

18. A system for presenting historized process parameter values in aprocess plant, the system comprising: one or more devices disposed inthe process plant each performing a physical function to control anindustrial process; and a computing device including: one or moreprocessors; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to theone or more processors and storing an operator application thereon, thatwhen executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing deviceto: present, via a user interface of the operator application executingin an operating environment of the process plant, indications of processcontrol elements in a first display region included in a layout of adisplay view, each of the process control elements corresponding to theone or more devices disposed in the process plant and corresponding toone or more process parameters; obtain a link between the first displayregion and a second display region including a trend display view,wherein the link indicates that the trend display view presentsindications of one or more sets of historized process parameter valuesof the one or more process parameters corresponding to the one or moreprocess control elements presented in the linked first display region;and present, via the user interface, the trend display view in thesecond display region included in the layout of the display view, thetrend display view including the indications of the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values of the one or more processparameters corresponding to the one or more process control elementspresented in the first display region based on the obtained link.

19. The system according to aspect 18, wherein the operator applicationfurther causes the computing device to: obtain, from the first displayregion and based on the link, a respective identifier for each of theprocess control elements presented in the first display region; providethe respective identifiers for each of the process control elements to adata historian device; and receive, from the data historian device, theone or more sets of historized process parameter values of the one ormore process parameters corresponding to the one or more process controlelements.

20. The system according to either one of aspect 18 or aspect 19,wherein the respective identifiers for each of the process controlelements presented in the first display region is obtained in responseto receiving a request to present a graphical representation of a newcontrol module, function block, or process section in the first displayregion.

21. The system according to any one of aspects 18-20, wherein the firstdisplay region presents indications of first process control elementscorresponding to a first control module, function block, or processsection of the process plant and wherein the operator applicationfurther causes the computing device to: receive, via the user interface,a request to present a graphical representation of a second controlmodule, function block, or process section in the first display region;present, via the user interface, indications of second process controlelements corresponding to the second control module, function block, orprocess section in the first display region, each of the second processcontrol elements corresponding to one or more second process parameters;and present, via the user interface, the trend display view in thesecond display region within the layout of the display view, the trenddisplay view including indications of one or more sets of historizedprocess parameter values of the one or more second process parameterscorresponding to the one or more second process control elementspresented in the first display region.

22. The system according to any one of aspects 18-21, wherein the firstdisplay region includes user controls to adjust the one or more processparameters corresponding to the one or more devices in the operatingenvironment of the process plant.

Additionally, the previous aspects of the disclosure are exemplary onlyand not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.

The following additional considerations apply to the foregoingdiscussion. Throughout this specification, actions described asperformed by any device or routine generally refer to actions orprocesses of a processor manipulating or transforming data according tomachine-readable instructions. The machine-readable instructions may bestored on and retrieved from a memory device communicatively coupled tothe processor. That is, methods described herein may be embodied by aset of machine-executable instructions stored on a computer readablemedium (i.e., on a memory device), such as illustrated in FIG. 1B. Theinstructions, when executed by one or more processors of a correspondingdevice (e.g., a server, a user interface device, etc.), cause theprocessors to execute the method. Where instructions, routines, modules,processes, services, programs, and/or applications are referred toherein as stored or saved on a computer readable memory or on a computerreadable medium, the words “stored” and “saved” are intended to excludetransitory signals.

Further, while the terms “operator,” “personnel,” “person,” “user,”“technician,” and like other terms are used to describe persons in theprocess plant environment that may use or interact with the systems,apparatus, and methods described herein, these terms are not intended tobe limiting. Where a particular term is used in the description, theterm is used, in part, because of the traditional activities in whichplant personnel engage, but is not intended to limit the personnel thatcould be engaging in that particular activity.

Additionally, throughout this specification, plural instances mayimplement components, operations, or structures described as a singleinstance. Although individual operations of one or more methods areillustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of theindividual operations may be performed concurrently, and nothingrequires that the operations be performed in the order illustrated.Structures and functionality presented as separate components in exampleconfigurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component.Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single componentmay be implemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“identifying,” “presenting,” “causing to be presented,” “causing to bedisplayed,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions or processesof a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transforms datarepresented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, biological, oroptical) quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

When implemented in software, any of the applications, services, andengines described herein may be stored in any tangible, non-transitorycomputer readable memory such as on a magnetic disk, a laser disk, solidstate memory device, molecular memory storage device, or other storagemedium, in a RAM or ROM of a computer or processor, etc. Although theexample systems disclosed herein are disclosed as including, among othercomponents, software and/or firmware executed on hardware, it should benoted that such systems are merely illustrative and should not beconsidered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or allof these hardware, software, and firmware components could be embodiedexclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, or in any combinationof hardware and software. Accordingly, persons of ordinary skill in theart will readily appreciate that the examples provided are not the onlyway to implement such systems.

Thus, while the present invention has been described with reference tospecific examples, which are intended to be illustrative only and not tobe limiting of the invention, it will be apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art that changes, additions or deletions may be made to thedisclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined inthis patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ ishereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intentto limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication,beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not beinterpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in anysection of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To theextent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent isreferred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning,that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader,and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implicationor otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element isdefined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recitalof any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim elementbe interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) and/orpre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph.

Moreover, although the foregoing text sets forth a detailed descriptionof numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that thescope of the patent is defined by the words of the claims set forth atthe end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed asexemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment becausedescribing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if notimpossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, usingeither current technology or technology developed after the filing dateof this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for presenting historized processparameter values in a process plant, the method comprising: obtaining,via a user interface of a computing device executing an operatorapplication in an operating environment of a process plant, a selectionof a first section of a process plant for displaying a first set ofprocess control elements in one of a plurality of regions in a layout ofa display view, the process plant including a plurality of sections eachincluding a different set of process control elements; presenting, viathe user interface, indications of the selected first set of processcontrol elements in a first display region included in the layout of thedisplay view, each of the selected first set of process control elementscorresponding to one or more first process parameters; obtaining a linkbetween the first display region and a second display region including atrend display view, wherein the link indicates that the trend displayview presents indications of one or more sets of historized processparameter values of one or more process parameters corresponding to aselected set of process control elements presented in the linked firstdisplay region; presenting, via the user interface, the trend displayview in the second display region included in the layout of the displayview, the trend display view including the indications of the one ormore sets of historized process parameter values of the one or morefirst process parameters of the selected first section of the processplant; obtaining, via the user interface, a selection of a secondsection of the process plant for displaying a second set of processcontrol elements in one of the plurality of regions in the layout of thedisplay view; presenting, via the user interface, indications of theselected second section of the process plant in the first displayregion, each of the selected second set of process control elementscorresponding to one or more second process parameters of the selectedsecond section of the process plant; automatically identifying the oneor more second process parameters corresponding to the selected secondset of process control elements presented in the linked first displayregion; retrieving the one or more sets of historized process parametervalues of the automatically identified one or more second processparameters; and updating, via the user interface, the trend display viewto include the indications of the one or more sets of historized processparameter values of the one or more second process parameters.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining, by the operatorapplication from the first display region and based on the link, arespective identifier for each of the process control elements presentedin the first display region; providing the respective identifiers foreach of the process control elements to a data historian device; andreceiving, from the data historian device, the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values of the one or more processparameters corresponding to the one or more process control elements. 3.The method of claim 2, wherein the respective identifiers for each ofthe process control elements presented in the first display region areobtained in response to receiving a request to present a graphicalrepresentation of a new control module, function block, or processsection in the first display region.
 4. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: obtaining a maximum number of process parameters to presentin the display view; and presenting, via the user interface, the trenddisplay view including the indications of the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values corresponding to at most the maximumnumber of process parameters.
 5. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising: assigning a priority level to each of the process parameterscorresponding to the first display region; ranking the processparameters according to the respective priority levels; and presenting,via the user interface, the trend display view including indications ofone or more of the sets of historized process parameter values rankedabove the maximum number.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein the datahistorian device includes a plurality of data historian devices, andwherein providing the identifier for each of the process controlelements to a data historian device includes providing the respectiveidentifiers for each of the process control elements to at least one ofthe plurality of data historian devices which provides the one or moresets of historized process parameter values corresponding to eachprocess control element to the computing device.
 7. The method of claim6, wherein for each of the process control elements, the plurality ofdata historian devices communicate with each other to identify a datahistorian device of the plurality of data historian devices that storesthe one or more sets of historized process parameter valuescorresponding to the respective process control element.
 8. A system forpresenting historized process parameter values in a process plant, thesystem comprising: one or more devices disposed in the process planteach performing a physical function to control an industrial process;and a computing device including: one or more processors; and anon-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the one or moreprocessors and storing an operator application thereon, that whenexecuted by the one or more processors, causes the computing device to:obtain, via a user interface of the operator application in an operatingenvironment of a process plant, a selection of a first section of aprocess plant for displaying a first set of process control elements oneof a plurality of regions in a layout of a display view, the processplant including a plurality of sections each including a different setof process control elements; present, via the user interface,indications of the selected first set of process control elements in afirst display region included in the layout of the display view, each ofthe selected first set of process control elements corresponding to theone or more devices disposed in the process plant and corresponding toone or more first process parameters; obtain a link between the firstdisplay region and a second display region including a trend displayview, wherein the link indicates that the trend display view presentsindications of one or more sets of historized process parameter valuesof tho one or more process parameters corresponding to a selected set ofprocess control elements presented in the linked first display region;present, via the user interface, the trend display view in the seconddisplay region included in the layout of the display view, the trenddisplay view including the indications of the one or more sets ofhistorized process parameter values of the one or more first processparameters of the selected first section of the process plant; obtain,via the user interface, a selection of a second section of the processplant for displaying a second set of process control elements in one ofthe plurality of regions in the layout of the display view; present, viathe user interface, indications of the selected second section of theprocess plant in the first display region, each of the selected secondset of process control elements corresponding to one or more secondprocess parameters of the selected second section of the process plant;automatically identify the one or more second process parameterscorresponding to the selected second set of process control elementspresented in the linked first display region; retrieve the one or moresets of historized process parameter values of the automaticallyidentified one or more second process parameters; and update, via theuser interface, the trend display view to include ing the indications ofthe one or more sets of historized process parameter values of the oneor more second process parameters.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein theoperator application further causes the computing device to: obtain,from the first display region and based on the link, a respectiveidentifier for each of the process control elements presented in thefirst display region; provide the respective identifiers for each of theprocess control elements to a data historian device; and receive, fromthe data historian device, the one or more sets of historized processparameter values of the one or more process parameters corresponding tothe one or more process control elements.
 10. The system of claim 8,wherein the respective identifiers for each of the process controlelements presented in the first display region is obtained in responseto receiving a request to present a graphical representation of a newcontrol module, function block, or process section in the first displayregion.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the first display regionincludes user controls to adjust the one or more process parameterscorresponding to the one or more devices in the operating environment ofthe process plant.